Fall Gaming Update Part 2

*** New Game 1st Impressions *** — Borderlands 3 — From Gearbox Software, the original creators of the Borderlands game series brings us yet another entry to the wild and wacky cell-shaded “looter shooters”. Taking place after the events of both the 2nd game and the “Tales from the Borderlands” episodic titles you play as one of four highly unique “vault hunters” and are tasked to help the leader of the Crimson Raiders: “Firehawk” Lilith from the 1st game find additional mysterious vaults peppered around the galaxy on a planet hopping adventure, that is if the “Children of the Vault” with the “Calypso Twins” and their psycho followers don’t get to them first. Also there will be guns, lots and lots and lots of guns! Before we get into what I typically liked and disliked I do want to start out by talking about two of the new characters I tried out: - “FL4K” - His class is somewhat similar to the hunter/sniper class in BL1 & 2 however he is considered a “beast master” and is able to have one of three pets to help him out take out and distract baddies. He, along with much of the other hunters, has three different skill trees and each one has a specific assigned beast and the one I choose that seemed best suited for me gave me a spider-legged creature that can shoot out poison shots and goop. Also his super move allowed me to summon flying and flaming rak creatures that will dive bomb on their targeted opponents, the skill doesn’t do too much damage however it recharges fairly quickly. Lastly there is speculation that he is actually the loader bot from “Tales” albeit with heavy modifications to him and personally he looks the most badass out of all of the other VH’s and his deep, brooding voice is pretty awesome. - Moze - She is pretty much the same as the commando class from BL1 & 2 however instead of placing auto turrets you get a whole freaking controllable mech to waste baddies with! Just like with FL4K she also has three skill trees and each focused on the main mech weapon power it’s assigned to but what’s cool is you can equip different ones to each arm. Yet I more choose to use dual mini guns cuz I didn’t want a railgun and the grenade launcher wasn’t all that great to use. Another big plus is when you summon the mech it makes you invincible while in it until it’s fuel runs out and when you get out you gain full health and shields! So this can act as a “oh shit” function when you are getting way too overwhelmed, although it does take a while to recharge again. Much like with the previous commando classes this one is more for solo players and is the easiest to deal with, however I’m really not a big fan of the character’s voices. **The other two characters are Zane, an “operative” whom can summon shields or damage boosters and create a hologram clone of himself that will fight and damage baddies along with you, and Amara who is the siren class of the game and uses various mystic powers to trap and smash bad dudes. I was never a fan of the siren classes in any of the BL games but Zane doesn’t seem all too bad to try out and may check him out later. What I Liked: - This is of course considered the biggest game of the series and also the first one that features multiple planets to explore and getting more and more glorious loot. - Your main game hub is now a spaceship called the “Sanctuary III” (they don’t talk about II) and it’s freaking huge with multiple levels to easily get lost in, thankfully there are helpful signs to point you where you need to go. - When playing online co-op your level will be matched up with the area you are fighting in and some goes with all of the loot that gets generated so you really don’t have to worry about playing with others that are too over or under-powered. Although it does give you the option to set it like how it was in the previous games if you really want to. - There’s now guns that when you reload you throw it and will transform into a walking mode and explode itself at the nearest baddie. What I Didn’t Like: - Please take my advice and try to get out of Pandora and into Sanctuary ASAP, it’s not too tough or long (maybe 3 hours if you rush it) but much better gear becomes available after that point, instead of getting lame pistols, shotguns and SMGs, also really sucks to not have any storage or ammo upgrades. - The new antagonists are much more weaker than “Handsome Jack” and really don’t like their whole “follower” attitudes and also poking fun at online personalities like on Youtube and Twitch. - Accessing in-game menus have some pretty harsh lag when loading them on a standard PS4 unit, it’s not too aggravating to deal with but can get pretty annoying quickly. Gearbox is set to make improvements to this via patches but they don’t have any est. dates. - The time it takes from launching the game from the PS4 dashboard to actually getting into playing it is pretty long, maybe around 5-6 minutes on a standard PS4. Plus you have to watch a stupid dancing claptrap animation go across your screen at least five times with no indication on what it’s actually doing. Hope additional updates will lessen this up too. - Speaking of the PS4 dashboard, when playing the game it will post extremely random pictures to your social feed that makes zero sense whatsoever! After playing just one 2-ish hour session there were 8 pictures posted and every one I saw didn’t match anything on what I did in my game. This really needs to go, Gearbox! - While the game’s graphics don’t seem all too different from it’s last gen counterparts I do notice quite a lot of texture and environment pop-ins and still only performs at 30 FPS on a standard PS4, however will go 60 FPS on a PS4 Pro. - The game does offer split-screen 2-player co-op but right now that function is very laggy and buggy and will be addressed in future updates. Overall: As they say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or in this case don’t change pretty much anything cuz this one doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. Sure it’s still damn fun trying to grab up and check out all of the crazy and funked out new weapons but it’s just more of the same ‘ol, same ‘ol. At least you are now fighting in more exotic locales and not still bumming around on Pandora but bottom line, this one is more for the fans of the past games. Plus you will need to play at least the 2nd game and know much of the story of “Tales from the Borderlands” to get the most on what is going on in this and the story does feature a bunch of past characters from the entire series so newcomers to the series may feel really lost in it. The game is out now for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows PCs and will also be available on Google Stadia. — Darksiders III — Originally released back in November of 2018 and developed by Gunfire Games whom are partially made up of teams from Vigil Games, the previous developers of the Darksiders series, you play as one of the infamous “four horsemen” named “Fury” and she is tasked to hunt down the demonic manifestations of the seven deadly sins that are all taking residence in a post-apocalyptic Earth, yet she also must be accompanied by a “watcher” because the “Charred Council” doesn’t deem her all too loyal to her tasks. What I Liked: - While the 1st game was more like “Legend of Zelda” and the 2nd more like the “Diablo” series this one seems to take a lot of cues from both Dark Souls-like and Metroidvania-like titles. There is a huge connected world to explore with lots of nooks and crannies and areas that won’t be reached until you acquire the right powers or equipment to get there, killing enemies will collect “souls” in order to purchase items, materials and upgrades, every “Vulgum” shrine acts as a “bonfire” (but you cannot auto heal there) and fast travel point, and you even get rechargeable healing items that act like the “estus flask” from the Souls series and can be upgraded. - Like in “Souls” titles dying will make you loose all of your earned souls and you have to kill a blue floating spirit to get them back near where you last died, yet unlike in Souls dying repeatedly will not make them disappear and you can attempt to get them back at any time, that is if you are powerful enough to get it back. - Also unlike in standard souls-like titles you can “bank” your earned souls to put toward your next level increase and they will never go away. - Combat is pretty nice and fluid with the new whip you have to smack baddies and you do get a decent amount of battle combos right when you start, yet like in DSII there is no blocking but you have some nifty and fast dodge maneuvers. - Even on “normal” difficulty the game will still give you a hefty challenge and enemies can easily beat you dead if you are not prepared and careful, also there will be areas that you can attempt to access early on but the enemies there will really give you a hard time if your are not strong enough. - If you are still having a tough time then purchase the “void” DLC addon which will give you explorable puzzle areas to even get more souls items for easy upgrades and the enemies don’t provide much of a challenge (you will need to at least get the “flame hollow” power to enter it). - Cool thing about the past series games is that they all had some pretty good voice acting and scripts and good to hear that the same great writing and voice work is present here and you may recognize some famous animation voice actors in this. What I Didn’t Like: - Other than your “estus” like healing items using any other consumables will have a long cool-down timer to use another one, makes sense for the ones that give you temp increases to your stats but for the others it’s kind of B.S. - There’s no in-game map, of course Soul-like games usually don’t, but there will be a lot of areas to remember to come back to once you acquire new powers but even I will have a tough time remembering where they are all are. Although casually going through past areas with new powers doesn’t hurt yet can be a total time waster. - Again, I’m on a standard, old PS4 unit and even though the graphic styles still much look like the same as the past two series titles, and really don’t fully look all too current-gen, the game’s frame-rate does tend to be pretty chuggy in a bunch of places and then in others the game will just flat out come to a screeching half in order to “load” the next area. One time the game stopped five or six times within 10 minutes of gameplay when I was just exploring the area. - The “chain jumping” in order to cross large gaps can be hit-or-miss, it does usually bring an indicator showing that you can latch your whip to it but sometimes Fury will just start an air attack combo and then after finishing it you may connect but mostly you just either fall to your death or land in a pit. - Like in last series games most consumables will increase in price after purchasing but I still think this is super dumb. - I’m not sure if there is a difference between downloading the game and just installing the game from a retail disc but when I downloaded the PS4 version I had to download the full game TWICE! That’s over 40 gigs that had to be wasted on my hard drive! WTF Gunfire!?! Overall: When I originally saw the first reviews of the game it practically seemed like this was going to be the worst of the series but after taking my shot at it for around 10 hours I will confirm that this game does not suck. It can be rough around the edges in some places but I still think it’s a pretty solid action game, and hell I already think it’s better than the 2nd one and I’m sure much of the past technical glitches have been smashed since it’s been nearly a year since it’s release. You do not have to play the past two games in order to get into this one yet will include story elements from the 1st game of the series and playing it will help to better understand some parts, also I still think the 1st game is one of the past “Zelda” clones ever made. If you are still hungry for more dark action/adventure souls-like and metroidvania style games then definitely give this title a bite down and also check out the 1st title while you have a chance too. The game usually will retail for $60 and is currently out now on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Windows PCs. Darksiders: Warmastered Edition with all add-ons from the original title retails usually for $20 and is out on all current consoles and Windows PCs. — Blasphemous — Developed by The Game Kitchen, creators of “The Last Door” series, in this dark fantasy “Metroid-vania” style adventure you play as the un-named “Penitent One” and you must explore a highly religious yet nightmarish world of challenging dangers and immense fights in order to free the world from complete anguish and find the root of this evil. Also you wear a very pointy metal hat. What I Liked: - This features some highly impressive and very detailed pixel art, especially during the massive boss fights you encounter and meeting some gorgeous, giant NPCs too. Also all of the cutscenes are done in pixel art and their styles remind me of old Lucasarts PC games from the early to mid 90’s. - The game-style plays very similar to “Hollow Knight” where you only have one main sword weapon that you can upgrade and gain additional attacks and combos through them and the fighting controls are pretty tight and easy to manage. You can even do “finishing moves” on some enemies. - You can block most basic attacks with your sword parry and when you do will allow you to counter attack with a stronger slash. - Once you die (and trust me, you will) instead of loosing all of your earned “souls” you only gain “guilt” which will bar off some of your special attack meter and lower the amount of experience you gain from enemies and there are two ways to get rid of it: go back to where you last died and touch the marker (if you can) or find a special shrine to gain it back for a small exp. cost. Definitely is helpful if you cannot defeat a tough boss or area and want to explore elsewhere yet don’t want to go back to where you last got hammered. - Much like in “Souls-borne” like titles there is zero hand-holding in this one and a lot of the game’s systems and functions are to be figured out on your own. Actually it took me a while to find out that in order to get more health flasks I had to fill up empty bottles at certain blood fountains and I didn’t find out about the certain dead spirit lady that increases my rosary charms until nearly my 8th hour of gameplay. What I Didn’t Like: - The platforming is pretty stingy in this, especially if you want to jump down from a platform and your M.C. really tends to auto cling to the ledge. There’s also parts where you have to “climb” by stabbing walls and it does take getting used to and is a bit tough to manage. - Speaking of climbing, good lord that snowy mountain area sucks balls! Definitely get that done with ASAP once you get there. - The beginning of the game can be a bit unforgiving, first you have a mandatory boss battle right at the start although it’s really not too tough but the main problem is the only health recovery items you have are the two starting health flasks and they don’t totally fill up your health bar (around 60% at first) and getting through these areas can be an endurance test to try to get through them with the least amount of damage possible. Although once you get through the 2nd main boss then after that you find more flasks, charms and upgrades and becomes a bit more manageable. - Before boss fights (except for the 1st) you will find a “maiden” that can “assist” you during those fights yet they hardly do anything during them. I believe the 1st one I found blocked a couple of the boss’s thorn attacks but the 2nd one I found, before the fight with the big floating head, I don’t believe did anything! - I know this is coming from a very indie developer but the voice acting in this is pretty stale & mediocre and I would just turn them off. - Beware of the giant three-headed woman…. * Important to note that the 1st release version is not bug free although I’m sure they can be fixed through future patches. I did encounter this weird map bug where when I died the game map would make it like I explored some areas that I definitely know I have not been too or discovered yet and really makes it hard to remember if I need to go back to those areas after getting better upgrades or powers. Then one time I died on some spikes and when I came back to the same area my marker was on the spikes! Come on, man! I also did encounter one hard game crash and lucky my game save was unharmed but have been hearing about people’s game save files getting corrupted after crashes. Plus been hearing some of the end game content is bugged too so it’s best to wait for at least a couple updates before getting into this one. Overall: While boasting amazing pixelated visuals and a pretty badass-looking protagonist I personally don’t think this one is all that much of a game changer compared to all of the other 2D Metroid-vania-like games with some Souls-like game elements that have been released over the past couple years, plus it’s brutal difficulty may not make this an all too fun game to play for some veterans of the genre. Actually if I were to rank this between “Hollow Knight”, “Dead Cells”, “Sundered” and the more recently released “Bloodstained” then this game will be at #5. I don’t believe this is all that bad of a game and with improvements and fixes it could be a pretty great one and also I think these impressive-looking boss battles should not be missed out on. If you are a Metroid-vania junkie like me then definitely give this one a go but for others that haven’t played much of the genre then there are better ones to check out first beforehand. The game is out now to download on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Windows PCs for $25. *** Speaking of Metroid-vanias, earlier this month the indie MV title “Chasm”, after one year of it’s release, got a major overhaul and update for all console versions (was available for the PC/Steam version for months) and being that I gave my initial impressions of it a solid “meh” I decided to check back into it. First some bad news: In order to gain much of the updates you have to start a brand new game, in my last game I only spent around 6 hours so this was no big deal but sucks for people that got into a lot more than I did. One of the key features of the update was they added “85+” more rooms and variations to the random game maps and when I went through the first three areas as I got through before I didn’t really see much differences than last time I played, yet seemed like the maps were a bit smaller than before and there is easier access to shortcuts. Also they added a save/recharge point to the mine hub room and if you open up three or more areas it gives you the option on warping to a specific one, although more wished you can also immediately warp to the village. The combat and the enemies still seemed the same and the bosses didn’t seem all too different either, however they did add in more unique gear to collect that glow in your inventory. Lastly they added summoning scrolls that will give you a random warrior to fight with you but once you leave the area after you use it, the warrior is gone but not a bad thing to use to help in boss fights. Overall, even though there are much better and more defined games of the genre, this one still isn’t all too bad to play and do like it’s pretty old school late 90’s nods and touches and plus both the pixel art and music are greatly done. If you want to read my past impressions of this you have to click here — https://myanimelist.net/blog.php?eid=818086 — Indivisible — Developed by Lab Zero Games, the creators of the “Skull Girls” fighting game series, you play as the tomboy Ajna who’s entire life was thrown into disarray with both her home village burned to the ground and her father murdered by invading army forces and goes on a quest for revenge, yet learns along the way that she is capable of very unique powers including able to absorb allies into her mind and unlock hidden powers linked to a mystical giant beast laying dormant in the mountains. What I Liked: - Just like with the developer’s previous title, all characters are hand drawn and animated with some impressive and very colorful sprite work to all of the people you encounter and same goes with the up close character art during conversations. Even though the backgrounds are done in 3D they also boast some very colorful and artistic qualities and sometimes even looks like hand drawn artwork. Plus will confirm that the game does all run at 60 FPS on a standard PS4 console. - The opening game sequences and some cutscenes are done by both Japanese anime studio Trigger, creators of such works as “Kill La Kill”, “Little Witch Academia” and “Promare”, and the American studio Titmouse, Inc., creator of the “Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures” shorts, and they are directed by Yoh Yoshinari, whom directed the “Little Witch Academia” series and worked on the “Gurren Lagann” series. - The music is composed by Hiroki Kikuta, whom worked on both ‘Secret of Mana” and “Trials of Mana” (AKA: “Seiken Densetsu 3”) and all does sound like I’m playing in a lost developed game of the “Mana” series and has some pretty catchy tunes. - The voice cast is made up of a nice handful of anime and video game dubbing veterans such as Matthew Mercer, Ray Chase, Stephanie Sheh, Xanthe Huynh, they even got freaking Michael Dorn! Lt. Worf from Star Trek TNG! And yes will agree that all of the voiced dialog are all very well done and even sometimes gives out some pretty laugh out loud stuff too. - The gameplay and setup is very reminiscent to the PS1 RPG from Enix and Tri-Ace called “Valkyrie Profile” where each of the four party members are assigned to each of the face buttons and can perform lavish and devastating combos using all characters. - Completing a battle will heal and even revive everyone to full health and every member in your squad will level up with you, even ones in reserves. - While the game can be quite a challenge at first the save points are extremely abundant in this and even during the first few hours there will always be a save point after one or two battles or after a short sequence of platforming pieces. Speaking of saving, the game will automatically keep, and I crap you not, up to 200 of your past saves on one save file! That’s crazy! So you can actually go back to a point near the beginning of the game if you really wanted to but is helpful if you want to back a few steps to explore and find secrets or get more exp. What I Didn’t Like: - I hate to sound like a chump but I actually found much of the beginning portions pretty challenging and sometimes unfair and I’m sure a lot of newcomers will become pretty frustrated with them. There was even one mid-boss fight that took me 10 tries to get through it and pretty much it involved taking down summoned minion enemies immediately after they appeared. After defeating a major story boss the game does get much more tolerable now that you gain greater powers yet really wish those starting battles would be more balanced and tweaked. Also an addition of an “easy mode” would be really nice too because I think the story is pretty fun to go through and really like the series characters. - There is no exp. grinding in this game, once an enemy has been defeated on the game field they won’t come back. Sucks if you are getting stuck and hammered from a major fight. - Be prepared to get through some pretty tricky platforming areas and also stinks that controlling Ajna isn’t all the greatest here. - There are no items to use or buy and healing is only done either through your allies or yourself, yet the only way Ajna can heal is when a character is down and you have at least one full power meter. - The game’s camera sometimes gets stuck at area edges and really makes it hard to see where you are going. Overall: I believe this is a pretty great homage to personally one of the best JRPGs made for the original Playstation with a large cast of well voiced and rememberable characters, yet it’s tough beginnings may really frustrate players that aren’t too familiar to the game’s functions and the battle system does take some practice on getting used to. I think with some more game improvements and adjustments this can be a great RPG worth playing and I really believe this game should be checked out by all fans of JRPGs. The developers also announced that they will be releasing all free DLC in the near future that will include various bonus characters from famous indie titles like “Shovel Knight” and “Hyper Light Drifter” and even though the game costs $40 you are still getting, according to other reviewers, a 30+ hour adventure here. If I were you I would wait until near the Christmas holidays to check more into this because I’m sure there will be more future updates that will balance the game much more. It’s currently out on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, as well as on Windows, Mac and Linux PCs. — Sayonara Wild Hearts — Developed by Simogo, creators of “Beat Sneak Bandit”, this is a highly stylized “pop album” music video adventure where you play as a young female adult that just had her heart severely broken and after a sudden, dream-like turn of events you become “The Fool” and you are overcoming the personal demons of your past by surviving lavish music battles. What I Liked: - The music tracks are amazing and features various styles of electronic music from poppy techno to synthwave to trance to dreamy to bubblegum. Plus that opening track is so awesome. - The game’s narrator is voiced by actress and musician Queen Latifah - The visual style is extremely similar to another music based action game “Rez” with lots of bright and surrealistic graphics yet still keeping it’s minimalistic aspects. - There are no “lives” in this game and if you die or screw up the game will immediately place you back a couple steps and there are no penalties. Also if you die a few times in a row at one point the game will give you the option of skipping that part but I’m sure you’ll sacrifice getting your score higher. That option can also permanently be shut off. - The controls are extremely simple where you only move your character around and every action is done with one button (so this could even be played with an Atari 2600 controller). - After finishing the main game, which only takes about an hour, you can feel free to get higher ranking scores on each stage and getting gold on every one will unlock a bonus mode in the arcade section and plus it’s pretty damn fun to get better and higher scores with each go around. What I Didn’t Like: - All of the trophies are linked to zodiac puzzles that have very vague riddles and hints and have no clue what they mean. - Really not sure if our main girl is straight or LGBTQ (I’m guessing the later). - Oooooo! That car’s gotta fat ass! Overall: If you liked games such as “Space Channel 5”, “Rez”, “Child of Eden” (and, hell, pretty much anything else Tetsuya Mizuguchi has created) then this game is highly worth checking out and had a super fun time getting through all of it’s short but sweet stages. There are a couple frustrating parts to endure and the last stage may make you bust your controller but you just gotta chill with it and go with the flow and you’ll get through it. It’s currently out on Playstation 4 and Nintendo Switch and sells for only $13, plus it’s part of the Apple Arcade service on iOS devices.