Something Completely Different

More Thoughts On Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

There will be minor spoilers later on in this post.

Man oh man oh man oh man oh man, this sequel ****ing rules. I'm not talking just a great game, I'm not talking just an improvement from the previous title, I'm talking great ****ing game. From my first impressions post, you already should know how the game kind of gets going and what sort of things you have available to you. And even at the time, I was like "yeah, this game is a great game." But, as I've spent more time with it, I have come to the conclusion that every single little part of this game whether it's the new skill tree, the way combat has been refined, the environments, hell just the graphics alone are breathtaking at times, and just everything in between has been reworked or improved to a perfected state.

I think the last time I felt this strongly about a sequel was when I played Middle Earth: Shadow of War and subsequently finished it 100%. That is another fine example of what it means to take what worked about its predecessor, and simply improving it to the max and adding things that don't hurt its integrity, but instead gradually improves it without even realizing that the improvement needed to be made. I said this before as well, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a great game, but now that I have seen what improvements have been made for its sequel, it's hard to go back and play it now. Thankfully I did a full playthrough right before this one came out so I won't be needing to play it for a while if ever again.

I am doing my best in this post to keep away from spoiling too much after giving a good look into the start of the game in my previous posts because it is simply not the same as coming face to face to it in the game. There have been several upon several moments in my time with this game where I simply either had to stop because I was so engaged with it, or got really really into it to the point that I nearly fell off my chair. It's been a very long time since I had this feeling for a game to the point that I really do want to try and complete it in its entirety. The only games that I can think of in recent times that had a same or similar effect would have to be both Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy, both of which I have talked to death about. I love both dearly.

As far as Star Wars games are concerned, I think this could easily be the best Star Wars single play experience we've ever gotten. It succeeds even the likes of KOTOR and KOTOR II, and both of those games respectively are great games, and I have a deep love for them. But even I have to admit that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor hits too many good notes for me not to consider it better and even better than a lot of recent releases. That sounds crazy to say, and maybe I'm overselling it a little bit, but this is genuinely not just a great game, but a great sequel, and well worth your time if you just didn't get what you wanted out of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

My Xbox app tells me that I'm sitting right around the 9 hour mark as far as gameplay time goes, but I don't think that's very indicative of where I am in the game because I spent a lot of time on the first real open planet that it's simply impossible to gauge where I am story wise. Let's just say I'm early on. But that leads into my next point of "holy **** there is a lot of stuff to do". And I want to add to that by saying that this isn't like Assassins Creed or games like that where the collecting aspect gets stale or boring. In fact, each time I have gone off the beaten path, the reward has always been worth it. Whether it's a really cool cosmetic for Cal and BD, or a health upgrade. I'd say going everywhere you can on the maps is a good idea. The cosmetics are really nice too and adds a nice individuality to your character instead of looking like everybody else's version of Cal. You can have a beard and long hair if you want, or just short crew cut and a beard. The choice is yours once you find the cosmetics that you like.

In those 9 hours of playtime, I have also taken a lot of screenshots. Simply because I want to be able to look back at this post once I finish the game and just be able to see visually what I saw and how the game progressed. Lemme tell ya though, these screenshots don't do the game justice. It is absolutely beautiful and really should be played on your own time. But these will just give you another good idea as to what the game looks like. Keep in mind I've had literally no performance or graphical issues aside from the occasional hiccup.

The images below contain minor spoilers

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As you can see, I'm having an absolute blast with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Had you told me that this game would be quickly one of my favorites a few years ago when they were slightly teasing bringing back the single player Star Wars experience, I probably would've laughed. But from the get go, even with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I enjoyed the game despite it having some obvious flaws. I'm not too overly critical on games in general, but I can usually tell if a game wins or loses, and I would be surprised if this game in particular is not up for some kind of award. It would definitely take my choice for game of the year despite having said that about Hogwarts Legacy earlier this year. Hey, I didn't know this game would be this good. I haven't had this much fun with a game since Elden Ring, Hogwarts, and even Breath of the Wild to an extent. Which, speaking of which, I am all prepared for Tears of the Kingdom, I just need to wait for release day. Until then, I'm going to finish everything I can in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor before I truly let it go.

Play this damn game, it's ****ing great.

Welcome To May aka Video Game Month 2023

Something fun that I like to do in my video game journals is theme months. It gives me an opportunity to look at games that I have played in the past with a different perspective, whether I'm older than I was when I originally played it or I just simply am looking to talk about video games a lot in a given month. I've done a video game month before, several times in fact, but again, this will let me look at it with a fresh perspective and perhaps my thoughts have changed.

The structure is pretty simple. For the month of May, I will be talking about video games that I either really enjoy, somewhat enjoy, or I just have nothing but negative things to say about it. Whatever it is, it will be talked about here this month. I can't promise a post a day, but I can promise that things in this thread will at least be interesting to read. So I hope you find something in here this month that you find interesting.

So...sit tight and enjoy Video Game Month!

Rogue Legacy 2

I've always enjoyed Rogue Legacy as a game, but I don't think I gave it the proper amount of time to really sink in for me. And unfortunately, I just never found the time to go back to it. Fast forward a few years and Rogue Legacy 2 comes out. And man, I'm happy that I decided to take the plunge and spend some time with this game because it is really fun. In simple terms, Rogue Legacy 2 is a metroidvania style roguelike with a mechanic of when you die, you play as the next in line of your heir, with different strengths and weaknesses. Sometimes you'll be wielding a spell with extra magic damage, or you go sword and board with a double jump. It's completely random and gives a lot of opportunity for replayability.

Graphically, it's nothing out of the ordinary, but for this particular style of gameplay, graphics don't really matter all too much. Hell this could be a full on pixelated adventure game and I'd probably still enjoy it. The fact is, roguelikes and games in this style tend to rely more on how the mechanics work, and less on the graphics. But it's definitely been done where the both combine and create something beautiful. Dead Cells is a good example of that. Binding of Isaac as well.

I've been enjoying my time with Rogue Legacy 2 despite not getting very far in my runs. The cool thing about this game though is that while you do have the runs you go on, you also collect gold which allows you to work on a skill tree that is absolutely massive that it will take many hours to complete it. Whether you're strengthening your health for the next run, or just giving your character better starting armor. You choose what you want to buy with the gold you have available to you. Keep in mind all your gold gets taken away from you when you start a new run so you have to make sure that you both know what you want to upgrade on top of making sure that you get enough each run. Sometimes you'll have runs where the resources you gather won't allow you to do anything. But those are the times where you just jump back in and try again. Because the impressive replayability is there, dying on a run never really feels terrible. Though it does really suck when you have a really strong run going and you accidentally jump off of something to your own demise. Not saying I have done that specifically but I'm not saying I haven't either.

And of course, as far as sequels go, Rogue Legacy 2 does a really nice job of taking what made Rogue Legacy already great, and just expanded on it. I would definitely say that Rogue Legacy 2 is probably the one I would recommend more as it does tweak a few things from the original that definitely needed to be tweaked. In shorter terms, Rogue Legacy 2 is simply a more enjoyable experience compared to its predecessor. Again though, that's what you want a sequel to do. I may not have too much time into this game yet, but it is really fun to jump in from time to time and just take on a few runs and see how far I get. So far though, I would say my favorite build is when I get a character with spells. I think I've gotten the furthest with the staff wielding character, so I'd say when I roll a character with that, I tend to have the most fun. But, there's opportunity to get stronger with every character. And, the builds you see early on aren't the only ones available given that once you level up your skill tree enough, you'll unlock other classes that you can try out. So far, my experience with that has been minimal, but a good time nonetheless.

I think a similar experience I had in regards to how Rogue Legacy 2 feels is when Spelunky 2 came out. And don't get me wrong, but Spelunky and Spelunky 2 are great games. But, I definitely feel like the difficulty between Spelunky and Spelunky 2 had been tweaked quite a bit more than what people were expecting. Hell, I can barely get past the first few rooms, but...Spelunky in general takes a lot to get used to so that doesn't surprise me much. But as far as sequels go, Spelunky 2 is definitely a better version than its predecessor despite it being much tougher than the tweaks that were made between Rogue Legacy and Rogue Legacy 2. Rogue Legacy 2 is still quite difficult, but I'd say it's much easier to get used to the games mechanics when compared to Spelunky 2.

So yeah, Rogue Legacy 2 is pretty good.

Rocket League - Where Do I Stand Now?

Here's the thing, not every post this month is going to necessarily be positive. Hell, some may be straight up negative the whole way through, but maybe I won't go that route. We'll see. However, the route that I do want to talk about is what Rocket League means to me now years after its release. I want to talk about this here because well...it's video game month. But also, there is strong evidence towards the fact that I absolutely loved Rocket League. Especially in the first year of its release because everything felt new and nobody was really all that good at it. Plus, the game looked like a genuine good time so I picked it up maybe a day or so after it released, and spent nearly 10 hours with a friend of mine just enjoying the hell out of it.

Fast forward a few years from that, I then played Rocket League for many months with two really good friends of mine. And while I would say the experience was similar, I think the part that was a bit daunting was realizing just how truly good some people got at this game. To a point that it wasn't really all that fun to play ranked unless you were able to communicate with your teammates. Otherwise there was just no point. However, Rocket League still had some redeeming qualities to it that made it worthwhile to go back to. It was still a lot of fun to play and at least I had gotten good enough at this point to really enjoy it. I would main goalie in the team that I was playing with and sometimes I would nail some of these saves that I didn't even think possible. But somehow my hands did the proper work and I managed to save a game several upon several times. Unfortunately though, that experience was somewhat short lived as I don't really talk to those guys anymore. It was fun while it lasted but nowadays I don't really look to hangout with people much.

Fast forward again just a little bit and we are in current times. And...I have tried many different times to jump back into Rocket League, but in its current state, I don't think there's really anyway to save it from its inevitable obscurity as it slowly continues to dig its own grave. If I remember correctly, Rocket League is no longer owned by Psyonix, which definitely had a lot to do with how I feel about the game now. And who knows, maybe the time will come when it's time to give Rocket League a chance again. Unfortunately with the number of good games that we've been getting in recent years, it'll be quite a while before I decide to jump into Rocket League. It's one of those things that sucks about not being able to experience something new again. Back when Rocket League was just getting popular is where it really was at its peak. Nobody really knew what to do but we were all having fun doing it. Now it's become a version of itself which is hardly recognizable. And for someone like me who has been a big fan since its release, it sucks to see it in its current state. But that's how it goes sometimes.

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Breath of the Wild (Full Review)

Once again, full disclaimer that I've been playing the Wii U version. From what I've heard, there really is no difference between the Wii U version and the Switch version give or take a few better graphical objects.

Now, Breath of the Wild, what do I think of it? Well, I would say that it is easily the best game that has come out for a system in the last 10 years, and easily the best Zelda game ever made. The Legend of Zelda has been around for a very long time, and it's very rare for Nintendo to put out a bad Zelda game.*

*Even if some people didn't like some of the games in the series.

When it comes down to it, Breath of the Wild is a brand new open world game in the form of a Zelda world. Much like Skyrim and Fallout have done the genre as well as they can, Breath of the Wild takes the open world genre to a new high, and any other open world games should hope to be as good as Breath of the Wild. When I think of an open world game, I think "open and free." But as we've seen with games like Skyrim, there's still some hand holding with the map always telling you where to go. On the topic of other Zelda games in this sense, you start to realize that every single Zelda game before Breath of the Wild are not "open and free" and the amount of hand holding does loosen a bit, but it is still there. Breath of the Wild however takes that hand holding completely away, and within the first 15 minutes of the game, you are let free and are free to explore the entire world of Hyrule. I would say I was quite pleased to finally get an open world that really takes the open world concept the proper way. And if you're worried about the world being too huge, well one of the big positives for the game and the reason I already have 50+ hours into it is the fact that while you're adventuring, you're rewarded for it at every turn. Whether it's finding new weapons, new armors, new potions, etc, you pretty much feel the sense of satisfaction whenever you make it to the top of a mountain or cliff. Sometimes you'll literally climb a mountain and won't find anything, but with how important it is to get a vantage point for your next adventure, these offer the best possible way to plan out your next "leap of faith" into something interesting.

The reason the adventure aspect is done so well in this game and doesn't feel monotonous like other open world games is the fact that Breath of the Wild gives you all the tools you need for survival at the beginning of the game pretty much. You aren't having to go to a place and realize that you aren't allowed there yet. Stamina and HP aside, there are literally no limitations to what you can do in this game. Feel like fighting that bad guy? Do it. Feel like climbing that mountain? Do it. This once again gives you the freedom of choice and freedom of exploration that 99% of open world games do poorly.

The game like I mentioned heavily favors the sense of adventure over everything else, and as I mentioned, you're rewarding for it. But I know there are some that fear that the game feels far too big, and there's too much to do scattered all over. Well, if that's what you're worried about, put that thought aside. In the 50+ hours I've put into the game, I never felt like I was trapped with so much to do, in fact, it's more of a positive if there is too much to do, because it makes you come back to the game and find something new. Which is another big plus. A lot of games that claim to have "a lot to do" tend to go the route that "a lot to do" means "a lot of the same things." Although you find a lot of chests and weapons in Breath of the Wild, nothing really feels the same, because every obstacle or thing you discover tests a certain part of you that has to plan ahead in order to accomplish it. The process of planning things out gives you creative ways to take on the endeavor that you've been put up against. Making the obstacle feel its own, and unique.

Graphically, and this is strictly speaking from the Wii U version, is phenomenal. Like I mentioned a week or so ago, the common complaint of the game is that it does have some frame drops when in a heavily full area of the map, but it doesn't happen often enough for me to really consider it a complain. Nintendo will hopefully release a performance patch that makes this the number one priority. Because honestly, that's the only issue I've had with it.

Story wise, you still are met with the typical (some would say cliche, but it's not cliche) story with Link and Zelda. I won't give any spoilers, but I will say that this particular story feels a lot more personal and emotional than the other games before it. I've found myself not only getting emotional from the cut scenes, but just running around while you look at the "ultimate task" in front of you, you're just met with a sudden sense of dread and loneliness. You really start to feel like you're on your own, and you pretty much are for the most part.

Now, one of the things I really wasn't expecting with Breath of the Wild though I'm so happy it happened, is how ****ing difficult the game is. If you take a game say like...Dark Souls, and made it perhaps a few notches less difficult, you pretty much have Breath of the Wild. I've probably already died at least 100 times, due to either being unprepared, being careless, or just not realizing that the difficulty for this game is hard, which is super out of character for a Zelda game in this era.

With everything I have said so far about this game, I truly feel like there is so much more I could talk about. As I have mentioned probably once or twice, I've put about 50+ hours into this game so far, and I don't even feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what this game has to offer. That's how massive this world is. And the main reason I love it so much is because of how you feel like you're discovering something brand new every time you play the game. Whenever I turn on my Wii U and start of Breath of the Wild, I don't have a set idea of what I want to accomplish for that play session, because I honestly have no idea what to expect out of that play session. That sense of not knowing anything, and just going in and playing, is a big reason why it's so addicting. It feels brand new every time you turn on the system. That's how it feels for me anyway. Because the feeling of getting into a brand new game over and over again is the biggest reason why this game has done so well. Nintendo should be truly proud of the game they've made, because it's easily the best game not only that they have made, but the best game that any developer has made in a long long time. I'm a small amount hesitant to say that because we've seen a lot of great titles over the years, but I know for a fact that this is the best experience with a video game that I have had in the last 10 years.

If I were to give this a rating, i'd obviously give it a 10/10. The funny thing is, it's not too rare to see people giving this game a perfect score. Hell, I've seen people and myself included wish they could rate higher than a 10. The game deserves all the praise it gets. The hype was real and exceeded for me personally, and if you haven't played it yet, definitely do yourself a favor and find a cheap Wii U, and get Breath of the Wild. I only say that because the Switch is still fairly expensive, and in its current state, it's not worth the money just for Zelda, though if you do get it for Zelda, you'll love the hell out of it.

Review originally written on 10/06/2022

My Favorite Game of 2022 - Elden Ring

I know 2022 isn't over yet, and even with 2 more months left to go, there are still many chances that a game could surpass the experiences that I've had with games so far this year. And while I have had a large number of great experiences with gaming, there really hasn't been a whole lot to talk about when it pertains to gaming, especially this year. Blame it on covid or whatever else, but evidently things have slowed down this past year. Despite all of that, here is my favorite game of the year for 2022.

When it comes to choosing my favorite game of the year, there are a couple factors to consider. How much enjoyment did I get out of it? And why do I consider it to be my favorite of the year. Well, simultaneously with the lack of quality releases this year, we were also blessed with a lot of duds, and those duds either were really really bad, or came close to being somewhat good, though just missed the mark in more ways than one. Though, just because a game is bad from the outside, doesn't always mean it lacks the potential to be enjoyed. It's just that there are more than bad about it than good and to me, it's hard to keep playing a game that consistently misses the mark. But, in the end it's all subjective so it doesn't really matter anyway.

With that out of the way, the one game that I got the most enjoyment and the most 'consistent' enjoyment so far this year would have to be Elden Ring. I was heavily anticipating this game when it was teased what feels like years ago. But like everyone else, I went into the hype with the expectation that I really wouldn't get too far into the game given that it was from From Software, and I just wasn't prepared to get my ass kicked. Though, once the game released and I spent a plentiful amount of hours on it, I realized that each time I was playing, I was consistently having a good time. Whether it was trying to kill a boss time and time again, or simply exploring the vast open world that this game offers. Or if it was simply just looking at the architecture and beauty of the game and just sort of getting...lost. I surprised myself time and time again the further I got through the game because I was taking on enemies and bosses that I never thought I would prevail on, and wouldn't ya guess it, I just keep beating the bosses that required a little more time, sure. But...the satisfaction of getting a killing blow on a boss that has taken what feels like hours to kill really doesn't come close to a lot of things.

That's just it though, Elden Ring is...great. Simply put. Back when there were rumors pertaining to the game and what it was going to be like and who was at the helm of its creation, my imagination ran wild. And I let it stay that was while also staying away from as many spoilers as I possible could, because I wanted to go through this game knowing virtually nothing about it. I wanted to experience going into the main area for the first time, or experiencing getting destroyed from the first boss, only to come back 20 more times to die in other creative ways. And maybe you'll get lucky and get a few good lucky shots on someone that is far higher leveled than you are. It's not recommended, but it is possible to kill any boss in the game at low levels if you're good at dodging and parrying etc. Which...I certainly am not. I'm better than I used to be...thanks to Elden Ring.

And while this game is my favorite of the year, I've only really done 2 playthroughs, both with different classes. And both times have been a fantastic experience where I left feeling like I wanted to play more. The first time I played as a duel wielding bandit with bleed weapons. the second playthrough was full on sorcery / magic. And...my god, if you didn't think magic was overpowered already, just wait until you go full on wizard in Elden Ring. You'll feel like a damned god. And good. Sometimes it's fun to get overpowered.

Yes, there are still 2 months left in the year, and sometimes it is a little premature to point out my favorite experience of this year when it comes to gaming, but based on what I've seen as far as what we will be getting in terms of releases in the next few months, I don't think anything is going to top Elden Ring for me. I can still see myself starting up another file with a class I haven't done yet simply due to the fact that it's just fun to start another file to see what you can do in comparison to another character you have that isn't nearly as powerful. For instance, when I was training my mage account, I found fighting bosses to be a lot easier due to how much health certain spells take down in comparison to going full on duel wielding bleed weapons. But...at the same time, it's not nearly as interesting since you're standing at a distance shooting spells instead of getting in their face slicing them to death. Of course some come with their own difficulties and some are much easier to learn. It's all about how you feel like playing. But I assure you, regardless of how you play, you will have a great time. At its core, Elden Ring is just that...a great game. A great experience. A great though sort of hidden story throughout. And it's basically following whatever you feel like doing, at any pace you want to do it.

If you haven't picked it up yet and you're only reason for not doing so is because you don't think you'll be good at a soulslike, just throw that notion out the window. I honestly thought the same thing when I was thinking of picking up the game, and I even surprised myself with how much progress I was making. Play it. It's really really freakin' good.

Risk of Rain 2 - First Impressions

Before I get too deep into this, I want to say two things. One, my experience with Risk of Rain is very minimal. I'd almost say none but that's not technically true. And two, this game is definitely not going to be for everyone, but it will definitely be for those that like this sort of thing. Basically, what is Risk of Rain 2. Well, from my eyes, it's a complete reimagining of a 2D original put into 3D with the same kinds of mechanics though now it has more flare, I suppose you could say. On top of that, it's a roguelike. So if you like games like Gunfire Reborn where you basically get stronger the longer you go, this game will surely be for you. I don't have a lot of time into the game just yet as I just bought it recently, but it seems like it'll be one of those games where I play it when I just need a break from other more focused games.

Even with a few runs into my playtime, I will say I've already found a few things that I like about the game both how it's presented and mechanics wise. And I won't lie, I'm not going into this completely blind. I have seen people stream Risk of Rain 2 but I for the longest time thought it was strictly PC based, so I never got it. Only recently found out it was released on consoles. I do like how the longer your runs go, the more difficult the game becomes. It scales nicely because you do go around the battlefield trying to get upgrades to then inevitably take on a boss mod that surrounds itself with other tough enemies. So you have to kind of strategize on how to get strong quick without making the run harder than you can manage. It's a rather interesting mechanic but I really like it. The map is also huge and laid out in a way where you can just get lost on branching paths all the while taking down mobs of enemies. Like I said, it is one of those games that will fit a certain persons playstyle where they don't mind just blasting away at mobs of enemies. I like that sort of thing. As I said as well, if you liked Gunfire Reborn, you'll like Risk of Rain 2. It's also got a really neat art style. It's kind of like if Dead Cells and a cartoon had a baby, it would look like this. It's the only thing I can somewhat relate it to. It's also rather unique and works with the playstyle of the game.

Also because I only have a few runs into the game, I can only comment on the two characters that are available at the start. There's one that's an all around character with a gun and dash and a super blast sort of shot. Then there's a ranger character. So far I have used each character once and I definitely like the all around character more. I'll give the other one more chances obviously but it is also neat to see that there will be many more to choose from as I continue to progress and get better. These types of games take me a few runs to nail everything down but once I get the groove of things, I absolute rock the socks off these games. Even though they don't require a whole bunch of thought and strategy, the amount that it does allows for a somewhat relaxing mixed with a bit chaotic experience, and that's sometimes really fun. Vampire Survivors does this really well.

Risk of Rain 2 is also not something I haven't seen done before, but it certainly is done pretty well here. I'd say if you're a fan of roguelikes in general and are looking for one in the reign of a third person shooter with various characters and upgrades, I recommend it. I'll be playing more of it in my spare time if I don't feel like playing the more serious games. It fits nicely amongst the other games I have going on right now.

Hogwarts Legacy
Review Originally Written on 02/23/2023

Just a side note, even though I did write this review originally back in February, I'd say it still paints a picture of how I feel about it as a whole.

What can I say, Hogwarts Legacy hit all the right notes with me. An open world game based on the world of Hogwarts, and mix that with the gameplay loop of Shadow of War and a fantastic combat system that feels all its own, Hogwarts Legacy is truly going to be one of those games that we look back on years down the road, and remember how good it was and still currently is. And I know this type of gameplay style is not for everybody, but for someone like me that enjoys having a lot to do ala Assassins Creed etc, the minute I looked at the map and saw everything before me, I was ready to go. This game was also a bit of a surprise for me, because the minute I saw that you can get it early through a pre-order, I took the plunge. I knew very little about this game, given that I had only watched maybe 1 or 2 trailers, so there wasn't a whole lot to expect. And boy, when I jumped in for the first time, I must have spent anywhere between 3 and 4 hours just taking it all in, and that was just the beginning. Once you progress enough, the game really starts to open up as you acquire more essentials to make your experience that much more enjoyable. I'm trying to be somewhat vague as I know a lot of people have yet to spend some time with this game, so I am sensitive to spoilers. Plus, I would feel bad if I spoiled any of this experience for anyone else as it is such an experience that it's worth going through yourself.

At the moment, I've clocked around 22 hours of gameplay time, and I have only finished about 41% of what the game has to offer as a whole. I'm incher closer to finishing the main quest, but as its pretty normal with me and these kinds of games, I will take my time. I'll jump in for an hour, do a few things, stop, go back, and do more. Sometimes I'll spend more time if I'm really wanting to do something. But that to me is an enormous strength where I game can continue to pull you in even after spending many hours playing it. It doesn't make you feel like there's too much as you can progress at whatever speed you like. Everything does have a purpose, and given that I have done close to half the game at this point, I would highly recommend doing everything you can. It'll unlock customizations and sometimes spells that you'll need to take on other challenges. Nothing ever really feels forced, and you're basically free to tackle things the way you want.

I know what you're thinking, it should be pretty obvious that an open world game based in the Hogwarts world is no doubt going to be amazing, but you just have to have the right people behind it. And boy, the developers being this game did everything exactly right. You can tell with each time you make progress that every detail was well thought out and executed in such a way that makes you remember situations in the game. And I also know that people don't generally do well with fetch quests etc. I can say again that with as much time as I've had in the game, nothing has ever felt recycled or reused, though the types of quests are somewhat similar. Not so much that they feel the exact same though. But I digress, I really think the love and care shown throughout this game is certainly a gift from the developers. Sometimes, you'll get a dev team that couldn't care less about what they're making, and the experience is sub par at best. I would say Hogwarts Legacy is one of the best experiences in gaming I've ever had. It brings me back to the days when I was grinding through Shadow of War attempting to 100%, which eventually I did. I'm thinking Hogwarts Legacy will get the same treatment from me in the sense that eventually, that number will show 100%, and I'm honestly excited about that.

The other thing that I have always appreciated about these games is yes, the game never really forces you to do anything, so your sense of progression is solely based on you as the player. You're free to go where you want, do what you want, and fight what you want. And despite the obvious quest lines etc, you really don't have to do everything in a set amount of time. You can pretty much take as much time as you want. My younger brother has right around the same amount of hours as I do, and he's finished the main quest, and now he's going back and doing the exploration. I usually hold off on main quest and do the collectibles first. Ether way, you'll find satisfaction out of the experience. I guarantee it.

The only thing I will say about the controversy surrounding it is this: Sometimes, you have to separate the artist from the art. And in this case, it's J.K Rowling against the developers, and I would honestly just forget about J.K Rowling, and support the developers. They created a truly magical experience, pun intended. And I would honestly say that you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you decide to not play this solely based on that. Again, everyone is different and you're free to do as you choose. But I highly recommend checking this out. As I said, we're only near the end of February, and I honestly think Hogwarts Legacy will be my game of the year this year.

(https://i.imgur.com/ajWypg6.png)
Fallout 3 (An In Depth Look) pt.1

(https://i.imgur.com/ajWypg6.png)
Fallout 3 (An In Depth Look) pt.2

(https://i.imgur.com/ajWypg6.png)
Fallout 3 (An In Depth Look) pt.3

(https://i.imgur.com/ajWypg6.png)
Fallout 3 (An In Depth Look) pt.4

Some more screenshots from Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

If it's not entirely obvious by now, I'm having a really good time with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. I'm taking my time with it though because I want to really take it all in. It just plays so well and I don't want that feeling to go away soon. Fortunately, Tears of the Kingdom comes out in 8 days, so that's about the perfect amount of time for me to finish Jedi Survivor without feeling like I rushed it too much.

Anywho, here's some more screenshots:

(https://i.imgur.com/G6eQsZX.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/xxtCtJP.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/HoRgTA4.png)

Let's Take Another Look At...Fable III

Yes, in 2023, I am going to write an updated review on Fable III. There are several reasons why. The first very important reason is that I had possibly the best experience playing this game for the first time back in the day, that the memory still feels fresh. Myself and my best friend at the time decided that we were going to do a full on co-op run, and we did. We played Fable III nonstop from the very start to the very end, and it was such an amazing time. I had played Fable III maybe once or twice since then a few years ago, but it was only recently that I had the urge to play it again. And wonderfully enough, Game Pass has all the Fable games available, so I decided to install and off I went.

I'd like to get one thing out of the way and say that I know Fable III was not the most well received among the bunch. Hell people straight up hated this game. I'll admit, the gameplay elements and everything took a much different turn than what the game was like in the original. And if you're wondering which version of the original is the essential one, I'd say Fable Anniversary. It is indeed the best version of the original. But back to Fable III, I never really had much issue with how the game felt as far as the gameplay or anything. If anything, I was just a little irked at how quickly you can get through the game. Though going back to it much later in life, I've quickly realized that there is a lot more to do other than just taking on the main quest. I think what's nice about going back to games like this is that you sort of allow yourself to take on other things aside from the main quests whether it's companion missions or side quests etc. I'm basically taking my time with it, and I'll be honest, I'm having way more fun with it than I realized I would.

I haven't beaten it yet on the playthrough I have going right now, but I'm slowly but surely working through each area and getting all the collectibles and quests done. I'm basically playing it the best way I can by trying to complete everything. I don't know if I'll even play this especially with Fable IV in the somewhat near future, I hope. So, why not try and do everything for one last hoorah, of sorts.

As far as favorites go though, I'd say my favorite goes to Fable II for various different reasons, but Fable III probably comes third given that Fable Anniversary sits right at 2nd place. Fable II just improves the right amount of things for it to be slightly better than the original without taking too much away from the original that made it great.

I want to go back and talk about the combat in Fable III a little bit more because I honestly feel like even playing it in 2023, it doesn't feel dated. I mean, as far as camera movements and stuff like that, yeah, it may feel a little odd. But honestly, the times that I have been in combat in my playthrough, I felt like it was sort of an early version of what would later become the Arkham style combat. Which is very satisfying don't get me wrong. I actually quite like the fact that Fable III opened the combat up quite a bit and barely had any restraints as far as how often you can attack with spells etc etc. It feels very open ended. Which is helpful in a game such as this.

And i'll also go as far as saying that the game doesn't actually look that bad. Again, Fable III was released many moons ago so it's not going to be up to the standard that we hold today for video games, but there have been some moments where I looked around and really saw a lot of beauty, even for a game that is this old. Hell, I'm sure you could play games from the Nintendo 64 era and say the same thing, so maybe that isn't as farfetch'd as I'm making it out to be. Either way, for its time, Fable III actually looks quite good. And to today's standards, I'd give it like a C+.

Overall, I'd say if you've been wanting to relive the good ol' days of gaming and jump into one of the best game franchises of all time, Fable III still holds up pretty good to today's standards. It's nowhere near perfect and as I said, Fable II takes my number one spot, but Fable III does enough things good that makes it a joy to play.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom comes out in 6 days
And boy oh boy am I excited

So, I need to finish up Jedi Survivor by the time this comes out because I want to be fully invested in this one just as I have with Jedi Survivor. I'm inching closer and closer to completion of it so I think I'll be alright. If not, it's all good too. But anyway, we are currently 6 days away from the release of Tears of the Kingdom and because I literally have not played any of it, there really isn't anything to say other than that I am very excited and have been looking forward to a sequel of my favorite game of all time. I think it's going to be excellent, but that's yet to be seen. Anyway, I still believe this is one of the best video game trailers of all time and it only comes second to the original trailer for Breath of the Wild. The one for Tears of the Kingdom is great but Breath of the Wild was the first time we'd ever see this land, so it felt so revitalizing and new. Again, nothing wrong at all with the second one. It's got as much hype factor if not more than the original but for me, I'd put the Breath of the Wild trailer over that. Here's both in case you're interested:

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Full Review

A word of caution: There will be massive spoilers in terms of gameplay and story so if you are not interested in having the game spoiled for you, I do not recommend reading on. However if you are curious of my overall thoughts of the game now that I have officially completed it, read onwards

Well, I have done it. I have completed the main story of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and now it is time to finally give this game a full review and give my final thoughts on what I think of it as a whole. And what do I think? Well, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is a fucking amazing game and should be played by anybody who is either a fan of Star Wars, a fan of the Star Wars Jedi series, or just a fan of gaming in general. There are many reasons that attributed to me basically giving this game an 11/10 as my final score. I'll be going into those reasons here in this review, but yes, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor gets an 11/10 score from me. Long story short, this game exceeded every expectation I had for it and threw in some more to make game even sweeter. We're talking amazing gameplay, platforming, landscapes, everything. If you look at the positive reviews for this game, you'll see that what I'm saying is not too farfetch'd. And as you've seen from the past few posts of Jedi Survivor that I put up during my time with it, you can already see the positive momentum of this game and how it was honestly really easy to want to keep playing it. When I looked at the stats of my gameplay, I came in at about 21 hours which is pretty standard based on what I've seen from other reviews. You'll see a lot of the end game screenshots at the end of this post, but let's get into the story for a little bit.

First things first, I did really enjoy the story and the overall feel of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I felt that Cal Kestis had a really good introduction as a character in a new game series, but I didn't come out of the game thinking that the potential was fully met for the game. Not saying Fallen Order is any sign of negative in any way. In fact, it's quite a fantastic game in its own merits, but now that I have a game like Jedi Survivor to compare it to, it's hard to really recommend playing it again now that I have experienced Jedi Survivor in its entirety. We basically find Cal being captured early on, but soon realize that he can't be help captive for long, and we meet a new character in the form of Bode, who throughout 95% of the game, is leading us on to believe that he is one of the good guys. Though as we find out at the end of the game, Bode turns out to also be a dark Jedi capable of giving Cal a good whooping, which in turn leads to Bode being the final boss in the game. And perhaps it's my experience with Elden Ring and fighting those bosses and learning how to take them down, I didn't have too terrible of a time with Bode as a final boss or any of the bosses in the game for that matter. What we'll get to next is why that is, and it all boils down to gameplay. But basically, as you fly throughout the galaxy, you bring back together your team from the previous game minus Cere whom we later find out is also aiming for the same overall goal as we are, to find a safe haven in Tanaloor. At the same time, we are also met with an unexpected though very welcome romance between Merrin and Cal, and simultaneously seeing Cal struggle with his feelings for her and also his feeling towards attachments in general. Jedi are not allowed to form bonds. However, in this case, we are in a time where there is no more Jedi Order so there's even more disconnect between his connection to typical Jedi ways and going with his own feelings. Fortunately, we do later find out that he does give into his feelings for Merrin and we see more of a romantic connection between the two. And honestly, it doesn't feel too forced or anything of the sort. It feels natural as they are two lone survivors with a similar past, and they wrote Merrin in such a way that she feels strong connections towards those she connects with, so the connection between herself and Cal just feels more natural given that they are both very emotional characters. All the other characters like Dagan Gera, and the other bosses were also very well written, and much like the show Andor, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor truly made me feel for the characters throughout the entire game. Even if they offered little assistance to you, they still shined and the entire cast should be proud of how they created such a story that elicits such emotion through a game. The cutscenes also just add to this even further as you'll see in the screenshots later, but god damn there were moments where I was just sitting back in my seat sort of in awe of what I was watching. At times, it honestly felt like I was watching something that was meant for a TV show or even theaters. Hell, I'd love to see Cal Kestis as a character being written into a movie. I'm sure it would be fantastic. All in all, we do succeed in making it to Tanaloor accompanied by Kata, Bode's daughter, Merrin, and Greez. Cere unfortunately gets struck down by Darth Vader later on in the game. I enjoyed the story and thought it was very excellently written and again, all the characters that were in the game were very well thought out and had good scripts to accompany them. An overall great story that lends itself to a really great sequel. Seeing as they are expecting this to be a trilogy, I'm excited to see what they can come up with with another sequel. No doubt it'll be amazing.

Enough about the story, let's talk about the gameplay. When I made previous posts about Jedi Survivor, I also talked endlessly about the gameplay, but the reason for that is simply because the gameplay is just so so so good. It took everything that made Jedi Fallen Order great and just boosted it by like 500% and consistently throughout the entire game, I felt satisfaction in how they managed the level designs with platforming sections and combat sections. The combat was simply the most satisfying it's ever been in a Star Wars game and it really makes me feel like I did when I figured out the combat for Marvel's Spider-Man for Playstation 4. From the boss fights down to just taking down swarms of stormtroopers, the combat mixed with the new stances and skill trees really allowed the gameplay to shine bright overall. There were very few moments where I couldn't figure out what to do or how to progress and that was simply because something was just out of frame or a command didn't show up properly. Otherwise, traversing the landscapes and levels and dungeons and figuring out the puzzles weren't terribly difficult, but I did have moments where I had to sit back and sort of look at the puzzle and figure it out, which I eventually did.

Overall everything just feels massively improved from the predecessor which is obviously what you want out of a sequel. But Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is not just a sequel, it's a great sequel. And aside from it being that, it is also a great game that really warrants at least one playthrough if you're curious of it. If you're not interested in playing Fallen Order beforehand, they do give you a pretty nice recap as to what transpired during the time in that game, but experiencing it first hand is always better, obviously. To each their own.

And while I know I'm writing this review having not had any performance issues whatsoever, it is still rather unfortunate that PC players are not able to get the same experience because honestly, it is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played on my Xbox and on top of that, just plays so smooth and really allows the game to feel alive throughout. Whether you're going through a small tunnel or riding on the backs of creatures to traverse the land before you, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor makes the game far larger than its predecessor, but the things that make the games interesting is not lost in this big space. In fact, I'm sure I'll be going back to the game at some point to finish exploring the maps and collecting everything. However, the new Zelda will be coming out in a couple days, so I won't have time. But, it is on my to do list, so Jedi Survivor is not entirely finished yet.

I mentioned before writing this review that I'm giving the game an 11/10, and I want to explain further as to why. I usually don't rate games that low unless it's an overall poor experience. My average for rating games sits right around the 7/10 and 8/10 range. So, basically it doesn't take much to impress me with video games. However in this case, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was not only worth of a 10/10 but it exceeded all my expectations much in the same way that Middle Earth: Shadow of War did when it came out. It's just so good that it's hard to put simply how good I think this game is. And it's been pretty well received other than the obvious PC port issues.

I hope I made it pretty obvious in this review that I think Star Wars Jedi: Survivor overall is a great game, but if it wasn't entirely obvious at this point, I'm probably going to conclude this with the added thought that this game will be in my top 5 favorite gaming experiences of all time now that I have finished it. I haven't been this excited to write a review for a game since I wrote my review for Breath of the Wild, and with Tears of the Kingdom soon coming, you'll probably see another full review in the same respect as this one and the one for Breath of the Wild. I'm happy with my experience with Jedi Survivor but I definitely will miss playing it. I really enjoyed the story and the gameplay and everything just allowed for a really nice feeling overall that it's the kind of game that just doesn't come by too often. And when it does, you want to enjoy it as much as you can. I will miss it, but I enjoy it as much as I feel I wanted to. Highest recommendation.

Below, you will see screenshots that will undoubtedly be spoilers of end game so if you are not interested in seeing screenshots from the end of Jedi Survivor, don't continue reading. I'll put them into spoilers just in case.


(https://i.imgur.com/eiXajiv.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/saYJqkr.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/KfCAJOf.jpg)
(https://i.imgur.com/88zMDMX.jpg)
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Starfield

Alright, here we gooooooo! It's time to talk about Starfield. It's pretty crazy to think about, not only the fact that I'm literally coming here to talk about the game that I've been looking forward to all year, and in some cases kind of not looking forward to, but we'll get all get to talk about the game that I've 'ultimately' been looking forward to because it's not just a space game, it's a space game made my Bethesda. So given my experience with them in the past, my expectations were high but not otherworldly high, pun intended. TLDR, I've only put about 30 hours into Starfield since it's released, and I'm well aware of all the New Game+ mechanics etc etc, but i'm not going to get into that for two reasons. One, enough people have given their experiences with it that it doesn't seem like something I'll most likely partake in, and two, I just feel it breeds negativity about the game because ultimately getting to the 'real' New game+ requires you to speed through this game, and that's just not my play style. So I won't be talking about any of that. I may not even do a New game+ so it's rather pointless anyway. What I am here to talk about though is my overall feel and take on Starfield right now. As I said, I'm only about 30 hours into the game, and while I've done a lot of side quests and faction quests, I've barely scratched the surface, so there will be a follow up to this. This is more for just to put my current thoughts on the game out there and we'll see how things progress as I put more time into it. So...I suppose we can get the most important question out of the way...am I enjoying Starfield? The answer is a resounding 'yes'. Out of all of the games that I have played this year, and man we've had some really good ones this year, Starfield has managed to meet and exceed every expectation I set for it pre-release and it continues to get better as I go along. Here are some reasons why:

Companions: The thing that I have always loved about Bethesda games is the companions. Going all the way back to Fallout: New Vegas with Boone, the companions in their games have always been at the very least, interesting to have around. Whether you're using them as your own personal pack mule (which I am btw) or you just want to get into some deep roleplay and really immerse yourself into the world, you can do that to. And there are many options to do so, unsurprisingly. I'd say Starfield has some of the most fleshed out and most interesting companions to choose from, and I've only really only used two so far. I married one of them because again, I like to immerse myself into the roleplay aspect and Bethesda deserves a reward for their writing abilities alone.

Combat: This is something that I don't think Bethesda has really nailed as far as previous releases go. Fallout 76 felt like the most fleshed out combat experience in a Bethesda game at that time, however I would say that as I've given Starfield a bit of time to breath, I've actually really come to enjoy the combat. It wasn't the easiest thing to get down at first especially playing on console, but eventually I got it down and it's one of my favorite aspects of the game. At first, you'll feel like you're not really doing any damage or you're constantly running out of ammo, but it does get better. You start finding items and weapons that really fit your playstyle and at the moment, I'm doing mostly a pistol / melee build and it's working out nicely. The melee is a little finicky at times but that's just because your weapons do feel like they have a bit of weight to them, so sometimes it'll feel like you're not attacking as much as you should be. However, I'd say that's mitigated as you level up because you start to get perks that up your melee damage and honestly, just one level up in that perk makes my previous impressions on melee sort of half hazard, but it's just a bit of a pre warning for those wanting to do a melee run. Just give it time. Bethesda hasn't really nailed melee fighting down in their games probably since Skyrim. And that's perfectly fine. I've been enjoying the combat for the most part and it only gets easier as you find better weapons and do more damage. Never feels like you're underpowered, at least I haven't.

Space: I don't want to be overly critical of this aspect of Starfield because again...this is a game about space. And in space, there's really not a whole lot to see. At least from what we know about it. Sure, you can make the argument that this is a game and they could have added more if they wanted to. However, I would argue that sometimes it's better to immerse yourself into a game that feels more realistic and life like. For instance, I feel like it'd be a little odd to see creatures and things of that nature strolling around in space when realistically you know that just isn't plausible. It would kind of take away from the immersion in a way so I suppose there are two sides to it. I don't know. How is the space aspect of Starfield though? Well, to me, it's the weakest part of the game altogether. There isn't much to do other than save ally ships from being attacked from pirates etc but ultimately the space travel is solely meant to get you from point A to point B, and honestly, that's perfectly fine. I don't need a space game to strictly revolve around space. Especially given that the planets have so much stuff to do that you'll simply get lost in side quests and various activities. To say that the space aspect is the weakest part is not necessarily saying it's the worst part. It just doesn't stand out as much as the other parts of the game.

Quests: There are so many quests, and I mean so many quests. And guess what? They're all relatively decent to good, and I'd say they're so far all worth doing. I've probably done about 50 quests at this point ranging from companion quests, to faction quests, to the main quest, and so far, I'd say I haven't been disappointed. I'm still making slow progress on the main quest because it's so fun doing everything else that you just sort of get lost in true Bethesda faction. And I love that.

Overall: So as of right now, sitting at 30 hours, I'd say I'd not only strongly recommend Starfield to those that haven't checked it out yet, but if you're looking for a genuinely fun Bethesda RPG that has very little bugs, Starfield is that game. It's far better than people have been saying. Don't listen to the negative reviews. Play it for yourself and decided on your own merits. There's so much to do that it's impossible to have a full opinion on the game at this point.

Starfield - 60 Hours In
It just keeps getting better and better


My previous article about Starfield was about my experience throughout the first 30 hours of playtime. I'm now going to discuss Starfield with a bit more knowledge of the game and of course, time. As you saw from the title, I've just surpassed 60 hours playtime in Starfield, and boy I've got a lot to say, so strap in.

Where do I even begin to start, really? Well, Starfield in its current state and as it will probably stand for the rest of the year, is by far my favorite Bethesda game they've ever released. And don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls, you name it. But when you hear that one of your favorite RPG game developers is going to take on space, well you can't help but be excited. And man oh man, the more I play this game the more it strengthens the opinion that this is easily one of my favorite games but also one of the best games Bethesda has ever released. It's certainly the least broken comparatively. Again, eventually Bethesda works out the minor details, but it really seems like they wanted to make sure this game ran well and consistently ran well throughout ones personal experience. And it has held up. I'm 60 hours in and I've had maybe 2 or 3 times when the game bugged out and I had to restart. Very few and far between compared to their previous releases. Definitely one of the cleanest releases for Bethesda as far as day one releases go. Also, please do keep in mind that while I'm 60 hours into the game, there are still quite a few things that are waiting for me to experience, i.e. outpost building and I have yet to even finish the main questline of the game. Right now, I'm really enjoying all the faction questlines and a lot of the side quests are really cool. Minor spoilers, but even the gathering of different powers you can find can also be fun because the planets they're on give you enough to search for, and never really feels like it's the ONLY thing you can do on that planet. However, I have found myself doing these particular activities when I just need a break from the other parts of the game. Not that they're bad or anything, but it feels more like busy work comparatively. However, if I want to get everything done in this game, than I have to do that as well. I'd say at the moment, I have about half the powers available, so give it a little time and that will also be completed.

I talked in my last article about some of the specific things I really enjoyed about Starfield but that was only with the 30 hours of playtime that I had. After 60 hours of playtime, all of those things that I said I liked about the game I now love. And anything that I sort of had some issues with, have now been resolved. The one I want to talk about specifically is the ship building. As with most systems like this when it invovles building etc, I'm not always the best at it. I often times will get lost and sort of shelve an idea I have for a ship or building until I'm motivated to try again. I pushed myself to learn more about the space building in this game which is something I don't always do because sometimes I just count it as something I won't experience in a game. Starfield is the exception though because I truly want to experience everything this game has to offer. So I spent a little bit and watched some tutorials, and this is the result of that. I've built two of my own ships so far and I don't see that momentum going anywhere, at least soon. I call this one Kylo Ren:

(https://i.imgur.com/VJvSke2.jpg)

The combat is really awesome, as I said previously, and that's just gotten better the more I've experienced it. Sometimes there are a few buggy moments with the NPC's and whatnot, but nothing you can't laugh it, in true Bethesda style. I've really started to enjoy the space combat as well now that I've upgraded my ship parts and level up a little bit more. I know a lot of people have been saying that the space travel and space fighting is certainly the hardest to get used to, but the trick I've always found that works is just make sure you're always trailing behind an enemy, and dodge oncoming missiles. There were countless times when I was taking unnecessary damage because I simply didn't turn a little bit to avoid an oncoming missile. It's not a perfect science and sometimes you'll lose a fight without even noticing your health dwindling, but you just try and try again. I'm almost level 40 now and with the upgrades etc, I've found space fighting to be really fun where I didn't think that in my initial 30 hours. Just takes time. The systems are all there to make it fun.

As I did mention however, I still have not finished the main questline and I actually think that's rather rewarding to think about because it just means I've been spending all my time experiencing the other aspects of the game. And with as many side quests as there are in this game, I have to say that I'm impressed with the fact that not only do the quests all work and you can finish them with no glitches or buggyness, they are all fun to do, though some can feel a little rough around the edges. Despite that though, I've had virtually no issues with the quests.

Everything else is really great about the game, and it's one of those games that I think about playing when I'm not playing it, and when I am playing it, I lose several hours in the day. And that is a true testament to a good game. Fortunately I am still getting sleep, but even in my sleep, I'm up in space fighting off pirates and looting their ships and stealing them for my own use, of course.

Of course, as I still have much to do, I will be doing one more follow-up article pertaining to Starfield once I have finished everything I want to do. At that point, it will be a full review of the game and of course my final rating on my experience of Starfield. If you have been hesitant and really haven't decided if you want to play this, give it a shot. That's all I can say.

Starfield After 100 Hours - The Journey Has Come To An End
Sometimes, or even often times, it's tough to come to the realization that your time with a game that you've been loving dearly has to come to an end. Not for anything negative or what have you, I've just found that my time in Starfield is better spent somewhere else right now, achieving great things in other games. By this point, you've heard me talking about nothing but Starfield and how I feel about it, so this will work more as my closing statements as I sign off of Starfield for the last time.

Again, this is not really anything relating to how I feel about the game right now, I just feel like I've done everything I want to do, and now I feel like I'm at a point with Starfield where I'm simply searching for more stuff to do to fill in the empty gaps. That's not to say there isn't anything to do, but at some point you realize that it's time to just move on. It was the same way with Tears of the Kingdom, it was the same way with Diablo IV, you just move on. Will I go back to Starfield? Absolutely. Especially since I've heard news or rumors of expansions and DLC's so I'm definitely going to be strapping into that when the time comes. Either that, or i'll jump into the modding scene and see what people have come up with.

Another reason why I feel like this is the perfect stopping point for me, is...well 100 hours. That's not a small amount of time. It still feels like to me that the game just came out, so to have that many hours under my belt is pretty impressive, though I'm sure there will be many more milestones like that as I return to the game from time to time. Everything that I have said about Starfield in my previous reviews still holds true. It's definitely the best Bethesda game they've ever come out with, and while it doesn't do much to really push the boundaries for them, this is Bethesda at their best, and I can only hope that they will continue to grow as developers - especially with Elder Scrolls 6.

I'll keep this short and sweet, but Starfield will be put in the backlog for now, and when I pick it up again, I'm sure i'll have as much fun if not more when I jump back in.

I still strongly recommend playing this for yourself if you haven't yet. I've had and will continue to have a good time with it. For now, it's time to move onto something else. What that is? I don't know yet.

And We Are Back...To Elder Scrolls Online

What can I say? I have an enormous affinity for Bethesda games and although this isn't 'technically' Bethesda's doing, The Elder Scrolls Online continues to be my go-to MMO when it comes to something that I simply want to grind in and have a good time. For a while that was Runescape, but after 15 years it's become a bit stale, time to move on in an essence. Zenimax Online Studios is the developer behind this gift that keeps on giving so while it is a Bethesda paint, thank the experience you have to Zenimax. Anyway, as opposed to playing Fallout 76, why should you play Elder Scrolls Online? Well, it's really simple. Do you like the Elder Scrolls universe and you just wish there was an endless amount of it to experience? WEll, look no further because that is what this game is. Just imagine Skyrim but like...there's no end in sight.

I've played them all - World of Warcraft, Runescape, RIFT, they are all great in their own right, but they all sort of miss the mark when they don't really have that 'something' to continuously pull me back in. Runescape is the exception, but you can classify that more as an addiction than enjoyment to be honest. Elder Scrolls Online just has the constant 'get over here, i've got something for you' thing going for it that makes me excited to boot it up every time I do so. It's got all the charm to love about Bethesda's universe created in an almost seemless experience not just with the gameplay but literally no loading screens between places and it all just feels good. Yeah sure your action bar is small but Elder Scrolls Online was originally and still maintains the motive to be available on PC and console, so for controller users, the action bar makes sense. And honestly, playing as a sorcerer who also uses a two-handed axe, I've had no issues coming up with cool combinations for my combat attacks. They all have their own special traits which makes them feel more than just a singular ability. Some will heal you upon hit and in true Bethesda fashion, you can level up your weapons to make them even better. And yes, enchanting them too. Like I said, endless possibilities. 

The main selling point for Elder Scrolls Online boils down to two things - availability and multiplayer/single player. It's available for free on Xbox Game Pass and even without paying the subscription and the additional DLC's, you'll still get 100's of hours just playing the base game. Hell I've been playing for years and I'm still making my way through completing the zones. Again, endless. What's really unique about this MMO is the fact that you can play with friends or if you want, you can go through it completely solo and doing the quest lines and get everything done. Aside from maybe some delves, you can literally do everything yourself. Even bosses. I've killed a few bosses by myself and I've had some issues, but it is possible.

(https://i.imgur.com/V67PKqA.jpg)

This is where I will be spending my time for the foreseeable future, so whether you're gaming or not, I hope you enjoy the adventure.

Back to the grind!

Elder Scrolls Online - The Journey So Far [Part 1]

If you have never played Elder Scrolls Online and you're not entirely sure what I'm talking about, the game is setup into zones with their own respective quest lines and things to do i.e. dungeons, boss fights, etc. Much like games like Assassin's Creed, Marvel's Spider-Man, to "complete" your experience, you'll want to do everything the game has to offer you. I've even done this with Marvel's Spider-Man as well as Middle Earth: Shadow of War. I'm taking on the task of trying to get all of this stuff done in Elder Scrolls Online as well. Not only because I love the feeling of "completeness" but I also just really love Elder Scrolls so any excuse to spend more time in the universe is time well spent imo. Anyway, over time I'm going to log my progress as well as give an overall look into how I'm doing so far. The next post will evidently be an update to the current progress posted here:

Zone Progress - Elder Scrolls Online

ALDMERI DOMINION

AURIDON
(https://i.imgur.com/fGSnPdN.png)

GRAHTWOOD
(https://i.imgur.com/UsHqahw.png)

GREENSHADE
(https://i.imgur.com/LlOHwoy.png)

KHENARTHI'S ROOST
(https://i.imgur.com/dpazkeq.png)

MALABAL TOR
(https://i.imgur.com/wjIlJw6.png)

REAPER'S MARCH
(https://i.imgur.com/q1auTzW.png)

DAGGERFALL COVENANT

ALIK'R DESERT
(https://i.imgur.com/sBHjsgd.png)

BANGKORAI
(https://i.imgur.com/yQ3hNlS.png)

BETNIKH
(https://i.imgur.com/8LcwqJw.png)

GLENUMBRA
(https://i.imgur.com/Ai8DIxC.png)

RIVENSPIRE
(https://i.imgur.com/gJZbapc.png)

EBONHEART PACT

BAL FOYEN
(https://i.imgur.com/VIms153.png)

BLEAKROCK ISLE
(https://i.imgur.com/v7c9hli.png)

DESHAAN
(https://i.imgur.com/iFDOgPO.png)

EASTMARCH
(https://i.imgur.com/SR6APUH.png)

SHADOWFEN
(https://i.imgur.com/PNVHSDi.png)

NEUTRAL AND DISPUTED

COLDHARBOUR
(https://i.imgur.com/A88vWoB.png)

CRAGLORN
(https://i.imgur.com/TH4HtSZ.png)

CYRODIL
(https://i.imgur.com/1IzUvDr.png)

IMPERIAL CITY
(https://i.imgur.com/PM7ZXnv.png)

APOCRYPHA
(https://i.imgur.com/cYveWxw.png)

BLACKWOOD
(https://i.imgur.com/bmTBE0i.png)

CLOCKWORK CITY
(https://i.imgur.com/QrHq36w.png)

GALEN
(https://i.imgur.com/O5JuOKI.png)

GOLD COAST
(https://i.imgur.com/X3pJYT8.png)

HEW'S BANE
(https://i.imgur.com/eX9rcjy.png)

HIGH ISLE
(https://i.imgur.com/zXBCXPE.png)

MURKMIRE
(https://i.imgur.com/cgYYO6h.png)

NORTHERN ELSWEYR
(https://i.imgur.com/ZHrVER7.png)

SOUTHERN ELSWEYR
(https://i.imgur.com/r0EZrpR.png)

I "Finished" Pokemon Scarlet

All gym badges, all Team Star badges, everything. It's all done. Except for one thing - Pokedex. Yes, I am absolutely planning to fill up my entire Pokedex in Pokemon Scarlet but the real reason I wanted to post this here is because holy fuck this is the greatest track I have ever heard in a Pokemon game. It's of course for the trainer that has nothing but Eeveelutions and that just makes it ten times, no...a hundred times better. Anyway, I'm at about 180/400 as far as mons caught. Listen to this jam in the meantime!

Pokedex Update

(https://i.imgur.com/sn6QJQH.png)

My Early Thoughts On Diablo IV Season 2 'Season of Blood'

For some context, I've been playing Diablo since Diablo II and I've been playing Diablo IV since it came out in early access earlier this year. Initially, my thoughts on this game were that it is a worthy successor to Diablo III and it will stand the test of time for years to come. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Diablo IV had one of the most controversial patches I've ever seen in a video game, to the point that more than half of the player base basically said "fuck it" and never went back. I was one of those players. When the game first came out, it was really fun. Got a group of friends together and we just wreaked havoc on Sanctuary. However, some companies simply don't want players to have fun, so they released a patch which basically took all the fun builds that people were discovering, and said "nah, you're not having fun anymore" and nerfed pretty much every fun build that had been discovered up to that point. Not long after, 'Season of the Malignent' released as their first official seasonal content patch and...it was mediocre at best. We all know what battle pass is so you don't need me to tell you. If you don't know, it's a way for players to gain rewards as they level their character up in a seasonal journey. Companies will usually put the really cool items behind a pay wall whereas those that want to play the season for free tend to get mediocre to shitty equipment that has little to no value to the character whatsoever. Some would say, what's the point right? Well, there are other ways to gain rewards, through the seasonal journey. Experience, aspects etc. This is not out of the ordinary for games with a battle pass system unfortunately. The way it goes now is that if you have the money to put up, you'll get the benefit. I dont' really care either way about this but I know that it's a sour spot for a lot of people. Basically, Diablo IV had a really strong early access period and a pretty strong launch, but as time went on, Blizzard and whoever else was involved decided to start diggin their own grave. And...they did. Multiple times. There was a point where I said I did not see any reason to go back and play Diablo IV because quite honestly, I had had enough of it, and there really wasn't much more to bring me back to play. That is until 'Season of Blood' released.

I decided to go with the Necromancer class despite my early impressions of the class seeming too overpowered and not offering enough to make it fun. This isn't really a result of the new season, but I take back my initial impressions because I'm having a pretty good time with my current Necromancer build. Yeah, it does seem a bit overpowered compared to the other classes but that's ok. I'm not going to complain. So, Season of Blood, what is it? Well, in short terms, you travel in a new campaign that revolves around gaining vampiric powers and learning about vampires and the lore within. I've not gotten too far into the new campaign yet so don't worry about spoilers. What's really important here is what the new season brings, and from what I can tell, it comes with a lot of balancing fixes, some bug fixes, and things that in my opinion should have been the standard when the game released. If Season of the Malignant was Blizzard trying to appeal to those that were still sticking around after the patch, Season of Blood is Blizzard saying, "ok guys, this is the Diablo IV, we want you guys to play." The reason I say that is because the changes they made that they're counting as improvements should have been already implemented in the game when it released initially. The dungeon layouts, the quicker mount speeds and cooldowns. It just seems like Blizzard missed the ball on a couple things when the game initially released, and this is their way of sort of getting back to that. And honestly, I'm here for it. I mean, I already spent money on the game when it came out, and although I didn't have the most fun in Season 1, I did play it pretty much all the way through the seasonal journey so there wasn't a lack of stuff to do, just didn't keep me interested long enough to find more stuff. Part of me finds it a bit frustrating that developers will do this where certain things that should be in a game for whatever reason are just left out, and then they play it off like it's "new content" when the content should have been in the game by default. Whether or not that was their intention, I don't know. It doesn't seem like a lot of the developers seem to know what they're doing when it comes to Diablo IV so it's a mixed bag.

It's a little sad really. Because I really want to love Diablo IV. I love Diablo III despite its faults and Diablo II is one of the best ARPG's ever made, but something is still missing from Diablo IV that makes it feel like the others. However, with that all being said, I am actually having a lot of fun in Season of Blood, though I've only put about 2-3 hours into it and have mostly been playing in the Blood Harvest, which is basically the Helltide equivalent but instead, it's always active, you don't lose the currency, and it's available in World Tier II which is fantastic. It's hard to say right now whether Season of Blood will be a turning point for Diablo IV. If anything, this is just a start. If Blizzard can continue to make necessary changes and give players the game that they should have gotten back when it originally released, I'm willing to ride this train until the end. I genuinely want to see this game do well and it's a damn shame that it hasn't been doing so hot over this year. But...this is not really a big surprise with Blizzard. Hell, remember the Diablo III release fiasco where literally everyone was getting error messages? Yeah, this isn't new.

I'm going to keep playing in Season of Blood and will report on it more as I play, but while I don't strongly recommend jumping back in especially if you're already burned out after season 1, I do think they're at least trying to make the game more fun, and Blood Harvest on its own is a really neat addition with additional rewards which honestly I hope they just keep in the base game after the season ends.

For now though, I head back into Sanctuary and take on the vampires!

More Thoughts On Season 2 'Season of Blood' - Diablo IV

I wanted to come back after putting a little bit more time into the new season of Diablo IV to provide a bit of an update on my overall thoughts and feelings on Season of Blood. I mentioned in my previous early impressions post that in its current state with all the additions the season brings etc, the game feels like it should have felt when it released initially before any of the seasonal content. And to be honest, I kind of still feel that way. Don't take it the wrong way though, because that's not meant to come off as a negative. If anything, it's an enormous positive and perhaps a good look into the future of Diablo IV assuming the developers don't mess it up again. As we saw with their handling of the season one patch, I imagine the team behind this doesn't want to have a repeat of that, so hopefully the game remains as it is now or if anything, gets more changes to make it feel better to play as opposed to the contrary.

It's a tough world out there though if we're going to be completely honest about things. Blizzard kind of dropped the ball during their season one patches etc, and as I mentioned in my prior post, it caused a lot of the player base to take a step back from the game and perhaps not come back to it again, myself included. Though I've been diving into the seasonal stuff. Do I see this season bringing back those players that really don't see a way for themselves to come back into the game? That remains to be seen. So far, the general consensus of season two is that it does bring a lot of welcome balancing changes that makes the early and mid-game feel more satisfying to play as opposed to feeling like a grind that eventually leads into a wall. But again, I genuinely feel like that should have been the base of the game and the seasonal content will add onto it, but I can't be too harsh I guess. The game is what it is right now and whether you're jumping back in after the blow that season one brought, or you're jumping in for the first time, I'd definitely recommend playing this season as it is pretty cool. It's not covering all the problems the game has accumulated over the course of this year, but it does look like Blizzard is starting to listen to the player base and are making some welcome changes. It could be a bright future for Diablo IV but they really gotta just keep delivering. Another season like this one and I think people will be coming back in flocks. We'll see though.

Lies of P

When the original demo came out for Lies of P, I downloaded it and gave it a shot and instantly loved it. Unfortunately, when the full game came out, once again I was busy playing other games to dive into this one properly. However, I have now put quite a bit of time into Lies of P. At least enough time to talk about it here. I'll make this simple, if you have been anxiously awaiting a sequel to Bloodborne but have also accepted the fact that that dream is basically never going to happen, pick up Lies of P. A lot of reviewers have already said it but this to me feels like a true successor to Bloodborne in almost every way. And in some ways it actually does better than its predecessor, which is precisely what it is supposed to do.

The theme is pretty simple yet also captivating - imagine if the people behind Bloodborne and Dark Souls took on the story of Pinocchio. Yeah, that's what you've got here. The only difference is that Lies of P was created by a relatively unknown studio, though hopefully not unknown for too much longer. We've had a lot of attempts at souls-likes over the years, but I really feel that Lies of P not only captures beautifully the essence its trying to bring the character through, but also is easily the best attempt and succeeding at being one of the best souls-likes that has come out in recent years. Don't get me wrong, games like Nioh and Elden Ring are fantastic in their own right, but up until Lies of P came out, I never truly realized how much I would have wanted a souls-like based on the Pinocchio universe. And lemme tell ya, it is delivering. I've not gotten completely through the whole game yet, but I have taken down two, or maybe three of the main boss fights. And in true souls-like fashion, the bosses are not unfairly difficult, but you better know how to dodge and block. It's not as important as it is in Dark Souls because again, Lies of P is far more like Bloodborne in the sense that it wants you to be up close and personal with combat. It doesn't feel purposely sluggish and hard to control. I don't mean that as a negative towards Dark Souls. In fact, I think the sluggishness actually helps Dark Souls be an even better game, because it's not going to hold your hand. You need to basically as they say 'get gud'.

Graphically, the game is stunning. It's darker much like the souls games and Bloodborne but the Pinocchio theme really lends itself well and I rarely ever feel like the characters are taking me out of the game. Some of the voice acting is hit or miss like the voice for your little flying companion is a bit of a miss for me, but I'll get used to it. It's not bad or anything, just wasn't expecting such a normal sounding voice.

The game does really shine through its combat and weapons because although this is a little spoilery, you eventually find out how to disassemble your weapons and craft new weapons with the already existing parts that you've found throughout your playthrough. It is heavily incentivized to try out new weapon combinations because some with come with their own effects. For example, I picked up a hammer like weapon early on and it comes with a shock effect, however it's stronger when I put the handle of my previous weapon on it due to it making it lighter and easier to use. I've gone with a full on strength build so I'm favoring two handed weapons over the alternatives. I've not tried the other builds, but so far I'm having an absolute blast boosting my strength level up and wreaking havoc on evil puppets.

This game is delivering on everything I wanted it to and I'm gonna go play for a few more hours now.

Toodles!

Cassette Beasts - Pokemon With Cassette Tapes (First Thoughts & Impressions)

I know right off the bat the title of this articles makes you go "wait what?" but hear me out.

Cassette Beasts is probably the best Pokemon-like RPG that I have played in quite some time. And I mean that genuinely. A lot of times when you get games like this that are trying to copy what Pokemon does well, they tend to fall flat or more importantly, they lose out on creating their own identity on top of the identity that they are basing their game off of. I don't see anything wrong with being inspired by other works especially if it means it allows the creation of something of better quality or similar. In this case, I'd say Cassette Beasts actually does several things better, especially for someone like me who has had many many years of Pokemon throughout the years. And even if you haven't played Pokemon or have always been interested in the series but not enough to jump in, Cassette Beasts is a great alternative for not only the reason I mentioned but the price is far lower than the current Pokemon games on the market. And, if you have Xbox Game Pass you can install it and play it right now. That's what I did.

The game starts you off in an unknown world that you somehow washed up on, much like Link from Link's Awakening. However, in this game, you're brought to a place that seems to be separate from Earth and those that inhabit it also consider your current location somewhat of an anomaly. Doesn't stop them from being welcoming and positive though. You quickly realize that you're about to set out on an adventure and it's up to you to decide how you want to do it. Instead of being a super linear "one way to go" outline, Cassette Beasts surprisingly takes on the open world RPG approach by allowing you to go wherever you wanna go, within reason, and do whatever quests you want to do, and when you want to do them. It'll hold your hand a little bit to get through the tutorial and everything but once you're done, you're pretty much free to do whatever you want. Hell, I spent an hour of my playthrough already just battling the other creatures on the overworld and jamming to the soundtrack. I'll mention that quite briefly but yes, the soundtrack of course is fantastic. Then again, if you are trying to develop a game in the realm of Pokemon, you simply have to have a great soundtrack to go along wtih it. And one track in particular is especially fantastic.


Something interesting to note: when I first saw Cassette Beasts show up on Game Pass, I was instantly struck with the memory of my playthroughs of Floppy Knights and Dicey Dungeons, and I was certain Cassette Beasts was developed by the same company. Well, that ended up not being the case, surprisingly. I was so certain of it too but I suppose these two developers have a deep love of old school computer technology. Hell, if it means we get more great games, I'm all for it. I just thought that was funny.

I did mention it before that Cassette Beasts is set in an open world RPG setting and at first, I was a little bit unsure as to what that meant in this type of game, but I should have assumed it would be similar to games like Link's Awakening where it gives you a small start, and sends you off. Or even the original Legend of Zelda if we want to get really specific. Either way, I was actually pleased with how the open world setting works in this game in tandem with it's Pokemon style RPG elements.

I'm only a few hours into the game and Cassette Beasts for me is one of those games where if I turn it on, I can kiss the next few hours goodbye. And often times I wouldn't even consider that a bad thing. I just vibe with the gameplay and the music so well that it's hard to turn it off once I get the game going. Fortunately, much like Pokemon, Cassette Beasts not only comes jam packed with quests and cool things to do, but also there are so many different creatures to "record" and "upgrade" that it will still take me some time to finish it up. But I certainly recommend this if you're in sort of a lull and need a game to pull you out of that lull. Cassette Beasts is definitely one of my big surprises for this year.

Starfield - The Journey Continues

I'll be honest, when I was initially finishing up my time with Starfield before, I definitely wasn't feeling the rush to go back to it, at least until I played some other games that we're on my waiting list at the time. And although it really hasn't been that long since I played last time, I've decided that I want to continue the journey and keep pressing onwards into this vast universe that Bethesda has graciously provided us. Do I think it's the perfect game? No, it's still got some little issues to fix here and there. Is it the game that I want to spend all my time on? Yes. And that to me is the most important thing. I already know that even though I'm installing the game again right now, I'm going to have so much fun playing that it's going to be hard to put down.

I think what I did with my first 100 hours is exactly what I wanted to do going into it the first time. Get all the main, side, and faction quests done before moving into the new game+ mechanic, then once I go into new game+, I do everything that I wasn't able to do on my previous run due to alignment purposes (good / evil). I then did that and tackled the pirate faction quest that I didn't do in my first playthrough and absolutely enjoyed it. And all the while, I found myself losing time exploring the ridiculous but wonderful number of planets that you can jump to and explore.

Now, what am I planning to do with the rest of my time in Starfield? Well, I'm thinking I'm going to treat it more like a No Man's Sky sandbox and just do whatever feels right at the time. Not really needing to focus on any side quests or faction quests or what have you since I've already done and experienced them. So, if I want to repeat them, sure. I might. I think this will allow for a much freer feeling adventure than it did previously, and that's not to say it didn't feel free to do. But on the contrary, it's going to feel really nice to jump into a game that I've already put a ton of time into...and just sort of let the wind lead my journey. It's going to be a blast, and certainly I will provide updates as I go. But since this isn't my first rodeo with Starfield, the updates may not be as common.

Off to space we go!

Cyberpunk 2077

This is going to be a really interesting game to cover here because we're basically going to talk about two different versions of the same game. If you didn't know, CDPR released Cyberpunk 2077 initially in a really bad state. NPC's didn't work properly, graphically while really good, it didn't help that the graphics would break from time to time. You know how it goes, game comes out, game is not great, find out game was rushed. It's a common theme. However, what isn't common is for that very same game to get a complete overhaul. And my god the difference between what the game was and what the game is now is breathtaking in a way, and I'm going to explain why:

I was one of the really excited gamers that picked up Cyberpunk 2077 on release, and while at first, I was not really following the criticisms about the game, they slowly started to show themselves as I got further and further into my playthrough. The gunplay felt clunky and heavy at parts, and simply traversing the city of Night City felt more like a chore than a leisure. And the controls just overall did not feel good, and it sort of felt out of place for a game like Cyberpunk 2077. With all the other issues following behind it, Cyberpunk 2077 for a while was thrown into obscurity and sort of became a meme of itself. This is not to say that Cyberpunk 2077 had no redeeming qualities on launch, but like I said before, the issues started to pile up and less and less enjoyment was being had when I played. So I decided to turn off the game for a while and focus on other things.

Then...sort of out of nowhere, we get an enormous expansion of Phantom Liberty (which I plan to check out). It adds a completely new story aside from your adventures in Night City. However, in my opinion, the base game is where I think got the most fixes. And I don't mean just fixes, I mean a complete overhaul of everything in the game. Cyberpunk 2077 pre-Phantom Liberty and pre patch, again while good, just wasn't the vision of Cyberpunk 2077 that even CDPR wanted to present. I can safely say with having about 10 hours into the new patch, Cyberpunk 2077 is indeed the game that I expected from CDPR from day 1. But that's the thing though and I think it's even worth having a separate conversation about: are we to just assume that developers will eventually put out the game they had a vision for? And if so, as consumers, should we allow developers to release games in an unfinished state, or should there be an entire rework on how video game deadlines work. I understand that companies need to make their money and keep investors happy, but it feels like when you put out an unfinished game, the feedback sort of goes against those ideals and sometimes, the team behind it either spirals into obscurity or simply relieves itself of duties for any future titles *cough* Gollum *cough*. I don't really have a solid answer for this as I don't think it's going to stop any time soon in regard to putting out games too fast. However, I do think what is happening is that a lot of companies are starting to realize the negatives that comes with rushing a team behind a game that people are excited about. So, we're seeing progress, but I just wish there was more so that we didn't constantly have to have the conversation of whether or not we are treating developers right. Hell, if you're a developer and you aren't being treated right, I won't stop you from making a shitty game. But, at the same time, I just won't play the game.

Aside from that little rant, I do really think CDPR turned Cyberpunk 2077 around. I didn't really think it was going to happen, and I know that's not the most out there opinion regarding this topic.  However, I got to say, I'm impressed with CDPR for not only fixing the problems, or at least making better, that the initial release had, but on top of that, creating an entire separate story that falls on top of the original game. Sort of a "sorry we messed up, here have this!" sort of thing. And hell yeah I'll take it.

Throwing this in as a little joke, but I installed Starfield yesterday and I wanted to see if I could continue where I left off, but...once I jumped into Cyberpunk 2077 afterwards, I honestly found it really difficult to go back to Starfield. Not that Starfield is bad in any way, hell it's still up there for my game of the year. But Cyberpunk 2077 does so many things really well that I wish were in Starfield, and honestly feels really weird to play both next to each other. Starfield has some great qualities and does a lot of things really well. It just seems to me that Cyberpunk 2077 also does those things really well and also adds more things that make it even better. To me, Starfield is a really good starting point for a space RPG by Bethesda, but they've got the work cut out for them if they think it's going to be enough to standout against other big releases.

As a side note: I know it's not fair to judge both Starfield and Cyberpunk 2077 next to each other given that both games released years apart. I would say that it sort of furthers the point that I'm talking about - Starfield was released in 2023, and Cyberpunk 2077 was released in 2020. If you never told me which game came out at which time, I would be shocked to hear that it wasn't the opposite. Starfield to me plays like a game that was released in 2020, and Cyberpunk 2077 in its current state plays like a game released either this year or years after. It is so good.

When it comes to gaming, and this is something I have mentioned before, I try to be fair. I don't go into a game looking for obvious issues to talk about, and perhaps that allows me to enjoy games a bit more. On the contrary, it's really tough to say one game is better than the other when it so simply is not true. Again, I want to reiterate that I do not think Starfield is a bad game by any stretch of the imagination. I love it dearly, but it has so much more potential that I was hoping to see on release. Cyberpunk 2077 was still a decent game on launch despite it's issues, but man...if you haven't even jumped into Night City or put off Cyberpunk 2077 because of the news articles and controversies, I urge you to play it now.

It's been an absolute joy going through the missions and side jobs, and once I do that, I'll be jumping right into the Phantom Liberty expansion.

A solid game and would honestly be my game of the year this year had the original game not been released back in 2020. But maybe we'll make an exception. 

(https://i.imgur.com/4mSpRqp.png)
Anvil: Vault Breakers

I've been eyeing this game for quite some time as it's been on Xbox Game Pass for what feels like forever. And from what I can gather, this game is still in its alpha/beta/early access stages. Not that that is necessarily indicative of quality. I'd say it doesn't really have much of an effect unless the game is just glaringly awful. I gotta say though, for a game that is seemingly still being worked on, there is a lot of promise here.

I don't even really know what I expected going into this seeing as all I really know about it is the cover art from Game Pass. Just never took the plunge to install it and give it a shot and boy oh boy do I wish I had jumped in sooner. The best way that I can describe this game without sounding too out of this world is diablo with guns. You basically go through stage-by-stage missions where each planet has its own difficulties and upgrades you can find. There are bosses as well and honestly, I'd say the bosses are tough but fair. I haven't really had any moments where I felt the bosses were unfair, despite what some of the reviews say. They're the perfect amount of difficulty in my opinion. And the reason I describe this as diablo with guns is...well, it feels like diablo with guns. What more can I say. The thing I did not expect is how much it feels like a roguelike on top of all this. The upgrades and weapons you find throughout your missions seem cool and I've already found a few overpowered builds that I've been using a lot. So, I suppose knowing that I could throw games like Hades and Binding of Isaac into the mix of how this game feels to play overall.

The one thing I should mention though is that this game does have a gameplay loop that others may find somewhat repetitive and boring, but honestly, those are some of my favorite games. You do go through the same planets a lot and although you do tackle the same missions from time to time, because the game gives you different upgrades and builds to mess around with, this hardly feels like a negative to me personally, but I figured it was worth mentioning. Anvil doesn't do too much out of the ballpark in regard to the gameplay and loop, but it stays exciting, and I think I spent close to 10 hours playing it. And I just started playing it yesterday, so while this game may not be for everybody, it's definitely for me.

It's on Xbox Game Pass so you really don't have much to lose. And, it looks like it's multiplayer so I'm gonna get some people together and take on some missions. Gonna be a blast!

(https://i.imgur.com/4xyOU7o.png)

As much as I would like to say I'm thrilled with what I wrote about Diablo IV during my initial thoughts on the new season, I'm not. It's not to say that I disagree with anything that I said. It's more-so I don't think I went into the new season in the way that I wanted to. Yes, Necromancer is a really fun class and I can see why a lot of people would put it as their favorites. For me, I traditionally like to go with a class that carries a little bit more 'unf' if you know what I mean. Over the many hours and various characters that I've made during my time with Diablo IV, I have to say that it's come down to two classes that have really taken my attention in regard to their playstyle and general feel of how they work and the abilities that come with leveling them up. Druid and Sorcerer. While I started my first experience with Diablo IV as a rogue, I found that later on in the game, I was going for something that was quite honestly a little bit easier on the hands. Rogue can get really overpowered as you get to later levels, but at the expense of potential carpel tunnel, I had to move onto something else. I then tried sorcerer the first time and absolutely loved every second of it, and since then I've tried out the other classes.

I've been playing the new season titled 'Season of Blood' since it came out, and while I've taken breaks here and there, I've generally been having a good time, if not a great time with this new season. We've talked about before how there have been a few roadblocks that Blizzard had to smooth out since Diablo IV came into early access, and while the first season wasn't up to par with what most players wanted, it seems that season 2 is bringing people back in, me included. And man oh man, playing as a sorcerer in this version of Diablo IV has been nothing but an exciting ride through and through. I didn't expect to literally sit and play for nearly 10 hours when I jumped in yesterday, but I honestly could not stop playing.

Generally, in Diablo games the sorcerer class is usually seen as the fun class because of the different kinds of spells you can have. Shock, fire, earth, etc. I've always really enjoyed the shock based skills because I think both mechanically and graphically, they're the most fun. You can see in the image above that there are multiple shocks floating around the screen. That is due to multiple perks I currently have on this character that just fills the screen with shocking effects. And lemme tell ya, it's amazing every time. I feel so powerful and while I have died a few times to some of the new bosses, I generally feel pretty good strength wise as I level up. The itemization helps with that too. Instead of constantly finding loot that doesn't fit my build that well, I've been lucky enough to find nothing but armor pieces and jewelry that have only helped the build that I've setup. Below you're going to see a preview of just what this build can do. This was taken yesterday during my first day as the sorcerer class in this new season. You can just see that it truly is a sight to behold.


While I still agree with what I said previously about season 2 in that it feels like Diablo IV is where it should have been on launch post early access, I do also think that if you have had reservations about Diablo IV or were just simply too burned by season 1 being as mediocre as it was, I'd strongly suggest jumping in right now during this season because I honestly haven't had this much fun in Diablo IV since early access. Everything feels more refined and while I think there is still a bunch of work to be done to get to the point that it needs to be, I think Blizzard are taking a lot of the right steps to get to that point. Diablo IV as it is right now is definitely worth playing and that wasn't something I was too comfortable with saying over the past few months. But, if they continue this trajectory, we could see Diablo IV getting back to where it was during early access. When people were having the most fun.

(https://i.imgur.com/uQ2Ipua.jpg)
I decided that on top of talking about season 2 of Diablo IV, I wanted to also do a sort of deep dive into my character. Moreso this is just an overview of the skills I've chosen to use and what those respective skills do. Unfortunately, I did not get a screenshot of the information for Unstable Currents, so I will be providing information regarding what that particular skill does:

(https://i.imgur.com/BNZp9jV.jpg)
Arc Lash

(https://i.imgur.com/1WyelH8.jpg)
Chain Lightning

(https://i.imgur.com/eLE4NHi.jpg)
Blizzard

(https://i.imgur.com/XXtFYWa.jpg)
Teleport

(https://i.imgur.com/h4YPvqo.jpg)
Lightning Spear

(https://i.imgur.com/QFx3YQ2.jpg)
Unstable Currents
Cooldown: 70 Seconds
Lightning surges within you for 10 seconds. Whenever you cast a Shock Skill, a random Core, Conjuration, or Master Shock Skill is also cast

(https://i.imgur.com/BubaSTj.jpg)
Overflowing Energy

(https://i.imgur.com/9NS4jjW.png)

Here's the scoop - I've been playing nothing but Diablo IV for the past few days and I'm having an absolute blast. If you've read my other posts pertaining to either Diablo IV or the new seasonal content, you'll know that I've been pretty positive throughout and haven't really run into any issues that has caused me to either rage quit or what have you. In fact, I've actually had many moments where I'm sort of feeling what I felt when I jumped into Diablo IV during the early access beta. With a few kinks to workout with the new seasonal content and the other changes, I honestly feel like Diablo IV is in a trajectory to be one of the best games of the year. They just have to continue to keep putting out QOL changes as well as making the game feel fun as opposed to feeling grindy and boring.

There is something in Diablo IV that I have yet to be able to do. In fact, there are several things that I have yet to do despite having played as long as I have. Killing Uber Lilith and getting my character to level 100. I've gotten a few characters in the 70's but I've never gone past that for one reason or another. I think I honestly feel like this current build that I have going is going to take me all the way to where I want to go. Which is exciting because not only is it cool that I'll be able to experience that stuff, but I'll also finally have a character at level 100 that will absolutely steam roll anything that crosses its path. It's definitely one of the strongest builds I've ever had.

I figured I'd take this time to provide an update on both my character and my progress through the season and how I'm feeling in regard to my time in Diablo IV currently. I'm pleased to say that having now finished the main campaign of Season of Blood, I would 100% recommend those that haven't done so, jump in and experience it. It's not the most amazing set of quests out there, but for a seasonal questline with different rewards and new abilities to unlock, I'd say you should definitely experience it. I'm going to keep that part mostly brief because the main reason I'm here is to give an overview of my current build and where I see this build going in the near future:

(https://i.imgur.com/RIWsB1I.png)
Name: Suhh
Class: Sorcerer
Element: Shock/Frost
Level: 70
Current Tier: IV (Torment)

Stats:
Strength: 223
Intelligence: 412
Willpower: 312
Dexterity: 296

Attack Power: 2341
Armor: 4195
Life: 3795

(https://i.imgur.com/gU2BHyy.png)
2023 Game of the Year Nominees Have Been Announced! Here Are My Votes! (Winners Announced December 7th)

(https://i.imgur.com/zoMZ0vw.png)

To say I was a little bit excited to see Wild Hearts hit Xbox Game Pass would be an enormous understatement. I was absolutely blown away by the fact that a game of this quality would be on Game Pass, but you won't see me complaining!

Wild Hearts is a game that I have been looking to play for quite some time, but for various other reasons, I just didn't feel like I could set aside time for it. And of course, I wasn't really wanting to put the money into it at the time. I'll be honest though, if it had gotten to the point that I really wanted to play it, and I simply couldn't wait, yeah, I probably would have paid full price. Am I happy I don't have to? Sure! Anyway...

Let me just put it this way - if you were a big fan or are still a big fan of Monster Hunter, but you just didn't feel like the gameplay was quick enough, or you felt things just carried too much unnecessary weight i.e. running around, or combat, Wild Hearts is the go-to game. Honestly, I would say Wild Hearts finds a really nice mix between the quickness and agility of Black Desert Online style combat and the overall monster hunting mechanic of...well Monster Hunter. To me, that's what it feels like Wild Hearts is doing here - basically just a super accessible version of Monster Hunter: World but with the much-needed polish on various objects within. That's not to put any negativity towards Monster Hunter: World or Monster Hunter in general. Hell, Monster Hunter: World is one of my favorite games, but I do feel like it suffers from its own mechanics. A lot of games struggle to find a special balance between keeping with old mechanics and polishing them to feel brand new. There's a nice in between that some developers hit, and some don't. I'd say the developers of Wild Hearts has definitely found that nice mix.

As of writing this out, I've put maybe 3 hours total into the game, which includes 2 hunts, and a few upgrades to my weapons. I know there is so much more to discover with the game, but again, as a big fan of the Monster Hunter series, Wild Hearts hits all the right notes. And hey, if you've not played Monster Hunter and are looking for a really accessible way to get into this monster hunting gameplay style, give Wild Hearts a try. I'm enjoying my time with it and will report back once I have more game time!

Off to hunt!