Lara Croft and her Tomb Raider games have always been under some degree of scrutiny: whether it was what got her attention in the first place, the quality of her games, or the fact that, to this day, her releases have almost always been up against some stiff competition. From the time her character was conceived, she has always faced some kind of adversity in the mainstream spotlight. With the latest release in the franchise, she has to rise up to, perhaps, her greatest challenge yet: being released in very close proximity to the hype train arrival that is the release of Fallout 4. Love it or hate it, Fallout has been a show stopper and this game has been stopping hearts ever since its formal announcement.Read More
The Division To Allow Some Realtime Swapping
Posted on November 14, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
In a pretty awesome Q&A video with the developers of The Division, some pretty neat details about the game are revealed: first and foremost, the ability to hotswap abilities and gun customizations while in the open world and in combat situations. It’s said that you can have two active abilities at any one time, however, you can swap those abilities out for any of the abilities you’ve earned to that point and the same goes for the appearance and utility of your weapons. It is insinuated, though, that you have to do so through the menu interface so while you’re able to swap during combat situations it’s not recommended that you do so unless you can do so very quickly.
It’s also touched on that you can have four characters maximum attached to an account; this is handy for those who want to experiment with different play styles or loadouts. However, there’s some light insinuation that level difference between characters will be considered when matching them so keeping the level of your characters varied may be a good thing to keep in mind.
Also, for some crazy reason, there’s been an outcry for a couple types of hats… and that’s just… well, it was addressed. Just gonna leave that one at that.
If you want to watch the video, follow the link.
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Kenny’s Fallout 4 Log – Day 3
Posted on November 14, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
How Seth Got His Groove Back
November 13th on PlayStation 4
Yeah, so, my character’s name is Seth: there’s a bit of a story behind that name and there’s about four I try to inject into just about every self-injection game lead I can but that’s a different story for a different time. I’ll tell you now, memory has not served me well and it did not do my skills with the game justice as I was expecting things to kind of go a certain way and they most certainly don’t.Read More
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Kenny’s Fallout 4 Log – Day 1
Posted on November 11, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Deathclaws and Power Armor, Already?
November 11th, 2015 on PlayStation 4:
A lot’s happened in a short amount of time. In the first couple of hours I’ve put into the game, introduction included, I’ve already got my first companion, racked up my first set of power armor and used it to take on my first Deathclaw. It seems as though Bethesda is coming up to me and going “you remember this stuff? Yeah? I bet you remember this stuff.” Can’t say that I’m entirely surprised but it’s nice. I’ve already experienced my first set of graphical glitches, mostly people falling and dying on platforms that don’t seem to exist and people sitting and standing on these said magical platforms. It’s to be expected and, if we’re being honest, quite amusing. The game feels and plays, very much, like an improved version of Fallout: New Vegas and you can certainly feel the Skyrim showing in this as the movement and environment certainly shows it.
It’s not exactly the prettiest game and it does have its fair share of visual and audio shortcomings – one of which is a personal pet peeve of mine: I sometimes have a hard time hearing things and I require subtitles and sometimes the subtitles I’ve set are either not appearing at all or they’re stuck – but it’s nothing that takes away from the fun the game has to offer, so far. I’ve done my fair share of wandering and getting into trouble and I gotta say the experience is not far removed from previous entries at all.
Story seems solid, so far. Voice acting has improved quite a bit, too, which is awesome. Music is mostly not present but during some of the story-based moments, it was nice.
My huge concern is this, so far: if I know Bethesda at all, they have this habit of fooling you into what to expect from the challenges out there. Greatest example in my memory is when you faced a Behemoth earlier on in the game in Fallout 3 and I thought to myself “holy hell, if it took myself and that many Brotherhood members to take this down, there can’t be much that’s more difficult in this game to take on alone” when I later found out that there are many other threats much worse than that Behemoth. Deathclaws are a great example of a threat that was incredible alone and in packs they were nigh unstoppable. Every time I even heard one my heartbeat skyrocketed. Within the first little bit of the game I played today I was already paired up with Dogmeat, plopped down into my first set of power armor, and then faced up against a Deathclaw. Now, that was, by no means an easy battle, tension was high and the adrenaline was pumping but the point remains that it only took one try to down the thing and I’ve already got a suit of power armor. Of course, it requires a power supply in order to get going and the suit you get comes to you damaged so you can’t exactly abuse it early on but… still… power armor! I remember not even being able to wear a suit of power armor until late into Fallout 3 due to not having the perk so I could wear it and, at that, I didn’t have a suit, period, until a little bit before I put a point into that perk. I’m just wondering how the difficulty will scale from here: are things going to get bigger, badder, and more dangerous from here, or are Deathclaws still going to be the prominent threat in Boston and are they being nerfed slightly? I guess only time will tell.
Aside from all that business, very typical Fallout business: things haven’t changed that much and, honestly, that’s a very good thing. I’m already glad I picked it up.
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PlayStation Plus Review: November 2015
Posted on November 11, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
This month provides a little bit of the good, the bad, and the downright ugly on the PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection front, this month, and I’m here to provide you a little insight on what you’re getting, this month, in case you didn’t rush out and get the games already or missed out on them.
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Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition Review
Posted on November 2, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
This review was written using a digital copy of the game for PlayStation 4.
There was a long time where I was an avid Dungeons and Dragons player – up until around the time Edition 3.5 came about – and there was a string of video games and novels that I followed as a result: the Forgotten Realms. These were games and novels that tied directly into the lore and the world that Dungeons and Dragons were apparently supposed to take place in. Black Isle Studios created some of the best Forgotten Realms games ever, starting with titles like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale. When I was first pointed towards Divinity, it looked like it had the same feel and, honestly, as a result, I had a little apprehension: while those games are incredibly deep and full of life, they also brought back memories of frustration and how much time was drained into those games. However, most of that time was spent completely immersed in the worlds presented by the games and that made the choice pretty easy… it was time to give Divinity a shot and, well, here we are…
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New Shenmue III Screenshots Revealed
Posted on November 1, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
[youtube id=”gY6GzhjPXaE”]
From a bygone era that nearly broke Sega, Shenmue III rose from the ashes to breathe life into a franchise that had one of the more dedicated followings among gaming communities online: once developer Ys Net and creator Yu Suzuki presented the unveiling of the Kickstarter project at E3, it sent ripples felt all over the gaming world. This was, to me, one of the larger announcements of the entire conference and, as such, was the center of a lot of controversy.
Now in it’s third month of development, Suzuki revealed on Shenmue III‘s Kickstarter page that most of the planning for the game has come into its final stages and it’s finally time to start making things real. He opened up about how planning for stages were going and how development for some of the core placeholders for the game were coming along but the big thing that everyone’s been salivating for are these screenshots:
Considering this is all very early work it’s hard to not get excited if you have played any of the previous Shenmue titles at all: they were perhaps the first foray into a truly open and alive world that lived and breathed much the same way the real world does. Of course, back then, this was a very expensive undertaking and if that was them going all out back then I can only imagine, thanks to these small tastes of what’s to come, what this could mean for this day and age.
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PlayStation Plus Review: PS4 October 2015
Posted on October 19, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
In a slight change of pace, Sony decided to give us PlayStation Plus users a chance to delve into some great indie titles for the PlayStation 4: Broken Age and Super Meat Boy, both games I have never given myself the chance to play. I find that, usually, the PlayStation Plus titles were merely alright – while they’re great by indie standards and stand the test of time, for some of them, they didn’t always hit home with me – and this was a welcome change.
Broken Age
Put together by Tim Schafer and the fine folks at Double Fine Productions, Broken Age is a tale of two teenagers who come from two drastically different worlds to eventually come together in a common battle to free their people from oppression. A point-and-click game reminiscent of Schafer’s old work and stuff like the old PC point-and-click adventure games from companies like Sierra, you take control of Vella and Shay in what appears, at first, to be two completely different adventures. It’s this variety and diversity of characters and motives that keeps a game like this fresh and interesting but the one part that kept me hanging on more than anything was the fact that the game’s script and direction was extremely mature without coming off as “gritty” or dark. This was one of the things I liked about games like this back in the 90s; the game respected your ability to learn and discover things about the world around you to solve its mysteries and puzzles. There was no hand-holding, there was no signs of the game doing anything but immersing you in the environment like a well-told storybook. While some of the whimsy and wonder that was present in games like those in gaming’s past is missing from Broken Age, it holds its interest in being extremely easy to relate to and intriguing without being heavy-handed or philosophical.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Considering I got the game for free through PlayStation Plus, this is one heck of a great deal and it’s one of those few times that I’m extremely happy I’m a member. It’s games like this that take me back and keep me in touch with my inner child.
Super Meat Boy
Yet another one of those games that was fostered on Newgrounds and got enough of a reputation that the next logical step was to take this game to new platforms: the result it Super Meat Boy. It has all the makings and trappings of a typical flash game that succeeds on a site like Newgrounds: light on premise, huge on user-friendliness, with enough to keep you playing and keep you succeeding. In case you haven’t heard much about the game you take the role of Meat Boy, whose girlfriend is kidnapped by a mad scientist baby and your missing is to rescue said girlfriend. This mission takes you across several different courses and stages with tons of bonuses along the way. While the gameplay is simple, a good majority of the courses aren’t; the difficulty scales slowly until the game, essentially, stops holding your hand altogether and unleashes hell on you.
I ought to say that I’m not much for this kind of time-trial style platforming where there’s almost zero room for error but for all the messes that AAA developers will stuff in your face that feign to be philosophical and meaningful, it’s nice to put that down in exchange for a light-hearted romp through rampant and colorful death. I get why a lot of people like the game and while I could get myself through a good portion of the courses I know that it just isn’t the type of game I’m terribly into, I would only be able to play so much at a time before the game frustrates the hell out of me but for the low price of free, it’s definitely worth spending some time with.
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – Next Chapter Theorized
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
There is one hell of a dedicated group over on reddit that seems to have finally broken ground on what they believe to be hints towards a third chapter to Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. There’s already evidence of this in the fact that cinematics and storyboards are already out there regarding a mission that cannot be played in the game proper but no one can confirm whether or not that content is to be seen in some kind of official next chapter or if it was just something that was left on the cutting room floor that wasn’t cleaned up. Spoiler beyond the bump, so if you haven’t played the game through, please don’t go on.
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Allison Road Leaves Kickstarter and Picked Up by Team17
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
In kind of a quirky turn of events, studio Team17 has decided to back the indie game Allison Road, which looks to pick up where PTs seems to have left off. This may be a good run for the studio who has been known, for quite some time, now, as the studio well known for the Worms franchise – a Scorched Earth spinoff that featured worms and lasted way, way, way too long – as they’ve also backed Yooka-Laylee and seem to want an identity away from that.
This is good for both developers Lilith Ltd. and Team17 as Allison Road has the exact same kind of atmospheric creepiness and jump scare tactics that PTs became extremely well known for: the game’s extremely simply premise is that you are a man who has come down with a sudden case of amnesia and has to find out what exactly just happened to the family he apparently has. Unlike PTs or, before it, Silent Hill: The Room, the developer promises you will be able to leave the home first shown in a prototype demo, which you can check out after the bump:
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EA’s Star Wars Battlefront Beta Surpassed 9 Million Users
Posted on October 13, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Whether they jumped on for a short time and hated it or loved it and stuck it through the entire beta phase, the game’s senior producer, Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir, revealed the the beta is officially the largest open beta in Electronic Arts history by accruing over nine million active users through the course of its tenure.
Considering that a lot of Star Wars franchise fans have been salivating for a Battlefront game for a very, very long time, now, this isn’t entirely surprising. What is surprising, however, is the mixed responses it’s gotten from those who have played. While there are reports that this game is one of the most anticipated of the last quarter of the year, after playing the beta, there seems to be some hesitation among some of the people I know that are playing the game, hoping, at the very least, that it will improve.
Star Wars: Battlefront is coming on November 17th of this year, putting it in direct competition with another titan of a franchise being release around the same time: Fallout 4, which is coming out a week earlier. The season pass, which will set you back fifty dollars, will give you access to all planned expansion content.
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Dragon Age: Inquisition Game of the Year Edition | Review
Posted on October 10, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Dragon Age is another in a strong list of BioWare franchises that has a strong, loyal, and sometimes fierce following; when games in their franchises try to hit a massive audience outside of their core user base things often get kind of messy and, unfortunately, as a result, good standalone games and franchise entries get dragged through the dirt. Inquisition is one of those games and, in an effort to try and re-establish itself with that wider audience and show some loyalty to its core audience, BioWare releases a Game of the Year edition to give those who either haven’t played the game at all or haven’t engaged in any of the extra content that’s available for the game.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Like most AAA role playing games, the first twenty minutes is almost purely exposition and introduction to the setting, the characters, and the gameplay: what you’re getting and what you’re introduced to is a blending of the previous titles in the franchise and looks to wrap everything up. Even if you’re a newcomer to the series, there’s not a noticeable detriment to coming into the franchise as you have options; you can either work with the default world state or you can experiment on Dragon Age Keep, a website that ties into your Origin account and allows you to mess around with world states, which is really cool. Due to circumstances out of my control, Dragon Age Keep allowed me to recreate the world state in saves I had used in previous titles.
Introduction to combat doesn’t happen without too much hand-holding and it’s done within the narrative so it doesn’t feel as though it creates too much of a interruption in the experience. The first bit of this game is exactly what I expected to see from a BioWare title.
In my humble opinion, they took everything that succeeded in both of the former titles in the franchise and blended them together to provide the framework that this game is built around. BioWare knows that if they have a vision they know how to bring it to life and that’s something they’ve done for as long as I’ve known them and their role playing games have been spot-on for this. Inquisition is absolutely no different in this as it provides an experience that feels just as great at being a game as it is a wonderfully presented narrative.
One of the largest things that stand out for this game is that it was made with two ideals in mind: broad appeal and taking advantage of current generation technology. It’s very clear that they’re trying to create a singular type of experience and if you’re a fan of the franchise like I am, this is exactly what you want. I came in with a certain set of expectations and I feel that Inquisition hit every one of them. I feel that one could dive in as any kind of player and feel that you could be immersed relatively quickly.
The graphical and audio presentation is extremely satisfying – on current generation consoles, the game looks, feels, and sounds marvelous. Voice acting is very well done and, surprisingly so, the lip sync is actually done pretty well, most times. There’s rarely any slowdown.
Its greatest strength, however, is also its greatest failings: I feel that the experience does not transfer over in the same way into previous generation’s systems. The appeal is so broad that, at times, it feels watered down. It’s clear to me that Inquisition was tailored for a very specific experience and everyone else that has any different demands from the game gets to suffer.
There are trivial issues that I could list off that are nothing more than just pet peeves but there are enough of them to note that I feel they should not be featured in the game the way that they have been: the worst of all is the removal of mana and healing magics. This means that, between rest stops and reload points, you’re limited to a certain number of healing potions and that is it. That’s creating a false sense of difficulty and that’s a terribly lazy design choice. In previous generation systems, there are a massive amount of pathfinding and collision detection bugs that can break the experience of traveling between locales. Story progression happens in spurts and the spots in between those spurts really only cater to those who greatly enjoy the lore of the franchise.
While this defines me, gameplay and story progression only rewards those who greatly enjoy both. If you feel that one or the two are lacking, it will taint the other experience. This game would be awesome if only it were way more refined, smooth, and immersive.Read More
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What Kenny’s Playing this Week
Posted on October 6, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Now that I’ve been able to bring myself back to playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain again, I find that it’s going right back to eating up my time. I’m hoping to get the new Witcher 3 DLC Expansion this week at some point and, from what I hear, that’s going to be a huge undertaking as well. I’ve put some time into Metal Gear Online as it just dropped today and I’m looking forward to logging some time into that one as well, though I probably won’t be on it nearly as much as I’d be with The Phantom Pain. I’ll be picking up Dragon Age: Inquisition again to brush myself up on that game in time for a review of the Game of the Year edition, as well, probably some time later this week.
If you wanna see what I’m playing this very moment, catch me on PSN through the handle itstheKenny; you can also catch me on Twitter @TheLaymensGamer and on Facebook as The Laymen’s Gamer. I have a YouTube channel, as well, if you want to see any of the short gameplay videos I’ve posted.
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Metal Gear Online 3 – First Impressions
Posted on October 6, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is now complete with the addition of its Metal Gear Online feature, the third of its kind in the franchise and it has never felt better. Like previous renditions, this version of MGO uses the engine of the game you have been playing alongside it for so long and turned the scenario on its head. You’re given a series of basic scenarios and it’s up to you to be the best damn infiltrator you can be.
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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six – Siege: A Closed Beta Report
Posted on October 6, 2015 by Kenny Keelan
Writers Note: This beta was reviewed using the PlayStation 4 copy of the game.
There was a time when I was actually pretty decent at FPS games: back when graphics on PC games weren’t as demanding so the variety of computers they worked on was greater, back when twitch shooting wasn’t the entire focus of gameplay, back when franchises like Rainbow Six focused on tactical play and thinking outside of the box. You see, I like FPS games when they demand a little more than being the quickest, most accurate trigger on the block. I like when FPS games require a lot of tactical thinking and even the most trigger-happy, balls-out shooter on the team can be taken down by preemptive thinking. Rainbow Six: Siege seems to be a kind of return to form for this franchise in that regard and for that, it makes me feel like the kind of FPS player that can actually grow and become more skillful as I play. That’s the kind of game I like.
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