The Division: Beauties and Affects of The Setting

Since the announcement at E3 2013 of the next title in the Tom Clancy’s series by Ubisoft, The Division, we automatically noticed the beauty of the world the game is set in. A post-apocalyptic Manhattan after a plague is released upon the country during Black Friday, with the island becoming  quarantined in less than a week. Day and Night Cycle: Both time of day and weather play a large role in how it affects the game physically and visually. From sunny to stormy, day to night, the visual layout of the city leaves fantastic visual effects. With the game set at the start of winter, there will be dramatic changes in the chilling climate while exploring the world. Said from the Senior Game Designer, Fredrik Thylander: “when in a full storm, visibility is hindered, both for NPCs and the agent. Our worst storm conditions that can hit will affect aim assist and detection ranges for both players and NPCs.” With the transition from day to night, the change in lighting is more vivid during the night cycle. More visual of light sources to draw attention to key areas in Manhattan, as compared to other areas completely blacked out. Which also results in affecting the experience as you play through the game. Manhattan’s Infrastructure: Set in the “city that never sleeps”, or as it use to be known as, Manhattan is still occupied by buildings and skyscrapers, as well as the underground tunnels below the streets left for the player to explore. From it’s size to look, the buildings being replicated from Manhattan into The Division will leave the feeling you would get when walking around the city. When traveling from one neighborhood to another, there’s a distinctive look depending on the location, like higher buildings and advertisements to residential buildings. But they’re not only for looks, the buildings could be used as an alternative route or just to hide from the harsh weather. With lighting and visual effects being more unique, it leaves a more confined feeling than the open space of the streets. As the year ends, the release comes closer to The Division. With delays of the game since 2013, the official date as of right now is March 8th, 2016. The game will be available on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC.

Fallout 4 Has Gone Gold

Bethesda has confirmed through a Tweet, with a picture with physical copies of Fallout 4 that the game has gone gold. Fallout 4 is ready to ship and launch on November 10th, 2015. The developers can now focus on future updates and content for the game. Fallout 4 comes out at an odd time. Bethesda will have to compete with highly anticipated Rise of The Tomb Raider and Star Wars: Battlefront, but Fallout 4 should up there right in sales as it is also a highly anticipated game this Holiday season. Will you be getting Fallout 4?

It’s Xurday In Destiny, Let’s Look At What He Has

Each week this mysterious dark tentacle faced guy known as Xur stops by the Tower, or sometimes he will post up in The Reef as well. This week you can find Xur in the Tower down near the jukebox or cantina area. If you don’t know where that is then you might be doing Destiny wrong. Xur brought with him three helmets, one for each class. For Titans be brought the Empyrean Bellicose, for Hunters he brought the Mask of the Third Man, and fro Warlocks he brought the Skull of Dire Ahamkara. Outside of those he also gives us an exotic engram and this weeks its an exotic chest piece. But be warned, this engram is for a random class and the only thing guaranteed is that you will get an exotic chest piece. But let’s take a closer look at these helmets. The Empyrean Bellicose (and the other 2 as well) are obtainable in 4 ways, The King’s Fall Raid, Nightfall, random drop in TTK, or from Xur. It’s main perk is AntiGrav Thrusters which while aiming your weapon in air will hold you in place fro a short time and orbs collected while your super is full will recharge your melee. This marginal at best, honestly. The “suspended animation” thing can be really useful in pvp to hover over doorways and whatnot but the orbs recharging your melee is a problem. If you want to orb farm off of your fireteam you can’t really do that with this helmet. I mean you can as long as you don’t melee anything. As for the Hunters Mask of the Third Man, this is a Bladedancers helmet. If you are not a Bladedancer don’t even bother with this.  It’s main perk is Unstable Current which grants less super consumption when using Arc Blade. Bladedancers are best in pvp, pve it’s kinda tricky because you can’t really do much expect clear out small groups of ads. The only time I really ever use Bladedancer in pve is for invisibility solely for rez purposes. For the Warlocks the Skull of Dire Ahamkara is a voidwalker’s helmet. It grants you reduced damage while using Nova Bomb and improved Siphon abilities. I personally don’t use a Warlock that often so I can’t speak how beneficial this really is. But I do know that Nova Bombs are still very relevant in both pvp and pve. So this helmet, unless you have a better exotic somewhere else could be useful if you plan to drop bombs everywhere.

Halo 5 could show PC gamers some love

There has been an outgoing interest in bringing more Halo games to the PC. There is still a  player base for the PC versions of Halo: CE and Halo 2. With how Microsoft has put a focus on PC with Windows 10, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see more Halo appear on the platform. Microsoft is already bringing Halo Wars 2 to the PC and we already have games like Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike. In an interview with GamesRadar on Twitch, Frank O’Connor around the 1:13 mark, put forward the possibility of Halo 5: Guardians coming to the PC: “You know, Microsoft has made a huge commitment trying sort of… I think normalize the Windows experience across multiple platforms. You see the elements of Windows 10 are going to appear in Xbox and Cortana and stuff like that. There is plenty of chance that Halo 5 could appear on the PC. Nothing to announce at this point. It’s absolutely not out the bounds of reason, but you know, we developed the game on an Intel platform. It wouldn’t be the hardest thing in the world to move it to PC and take advantage of PC stuff. But nothing I announce today on this chat.” O’Connor did not announce anything in the chat, but with Microsoft’s commitment to Windows 10 it is very likely we will see Halo 5 launch on PC later down the road.  It would be great to see a new collection of all the games release on PC allowing gamers who may of missed out the ability to catch up on the campaign. As a primarily Xbox One gamer who occasionally plays PC games, I know I would jump on Halo 5 on PC in a heartbeat. Would you get Halo 5 on the PC?

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate review

Game – Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Release Date – October 23rd, 2015 Developer / Publisher – Ubisoft Platforms- Xbox One, PS4 and PC Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the first follow-up to last year’s Unity. Although having many launch bugs, they were eventually worked out and revealed a very good game. Of course, with all the press that issue received, it forced us to look for them in Syndicate more than it would normally. Fortunately, over the 20 or so-hour campaign plus numerous side missions, I didn’t encounter a single bug in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Syndicate tells the story of Jacob and Evie Frye, two twins who are attempting to travel to London to take it back from Crawford Starrick. An evil man who has all of London from the police to the lowly gang members in his back pocket, Starrick controls all nine boroughs of London and the criminal underground. The game begins with two tutorial missions, first with Jacob and then with Evie, prior to arriving in London. The two could not be more different personalities with Jacob the fighter and Evie more of a stealth-first approach. In fact, the opening dialogue says it all when Evie says “I’ve studied plans of the laboratory, I know my way around” only to be followed up by Jacob pointing to his weapons saying “I’ve got all I need right here”. As you progress, you will upgrade both your characters with XP, even the twin which you are not using at the time. This is definitely a necessity in Syndicate as the majority of the story missions require Jacob to use over Evie. Since you can switch characters at any time you want unless you are in a mission, this helps remove the imbalance between the two characters. Every 1,000 XP you earn nets you a skill point which you can use to upgrade your individual skills in three different menus; Combat, Stealth, and Ecosystem. Combat skills include the likes of health upgrades and more powerful attacks. Stealth skills contain the ability of lock picking upgrades,  Eagle Vision to see through walls as well as tell the direction enemies are facing plus many more. Lastly, the Ecosystem upgrades contain items such as faster carriages and other environmental aids. The amount of skill points you need for each corresponds to their level. So one point for level one, two for level two, and so on. Once you use your skill point on the first upgrade, you will need to wait to get another 1,000 XP for another. Once you reach it, it’s decision time. You can choose to upgrade to another level one skill or wait until you earn a second to upgrade to level two. Even if you progress for hours without changing characters as Jacob, Evie still earns the available points which you can use at any time simply by entering the menu, and clicking the right analog stick-in to switch characters. You will also be able to level each character differently, say focus Evie on combat and Jacob on stealth or vice versa. As many of the side missions and optional quests require different approaches, it allows for an easier switch between characters. There are also Gang upgrades in AC Syndicate as well which are separated into three categories; Ringleader, Insider, and Swindler. The Ringleader increases your Rooks (helpers you recruit) XP and training items used. Insider allows the cops to turn a blind eye make bad guys scared of you and prohibit them from confronting you in certain situations. Swindler allows you to make money from your hideouts, train, and various other events. These gang upgrades differ from skill upgrades as they require in-game credits only and can be purchased at any level. These credits can be earned by completing missions, looting bodies, and all your standard Assassin’s Creed goodness. You are also able to buy certain weapons and upgrades at any time, but will not be able to use them if you are not at the appropriate level. All items, whether it’s a sword, firearm, etc, can be previewed in order to see the benefits or detriments of switching to it. I should note that the in-game store was not up at the time we played due to early release and is the subject of the small day-one patch. As a result, we did not get to see exactly how the crafting works or the various levels of in-game credit purchases we could make at the time of writing. Once in the mission of London, you see the true magnificence of just how lovely the world map is. London is divided into nine separate boroughs including the likes of the main city of London, the suburbs, the Thames River, etc. From the outset, it’s evident that Syndicate is not your typical Assassin’s Creed title with the beauty of the city. Plumes of smoke emerge from chimneys, sunlight reflects off of the ground, and at night time the shadows bounce in the light of the fires around the city. Although it’s not a destructible environment, and nor should it be, it’s one of the more interactive ones we’ve seen since Black Flag and all its scenes both on land and water. Ubisoft didn’t skimp on any history either when it comes to London. There are side missions where you need to help Charles Dickens himself expose fraudulent hypnotists and Charles Darwin get special flowers for experiments. Of course, it wouldn’t be Assassin’s Creed if these people and items weren’t guarded by templars who needed to be…..um….eliminated. As London is divided into nine separate boroughs, each of those boroughs has their own parts further broken down. While attempting to seize control of London from Crawford Starrick and return it to its citizens, you will need to take over each borough one by one. Of course, at the beginning, all of the boroughs are completely red, the classic sign in Assassin’s Creed that you can’t hide anywhere. You’ll need to be

Review – Life is Strange Episode 5 Polarized. Final wrap-up

  Game – Life is Strange Episode 5 Release Date – October 20th, 2015 Platforms – All Xbox, PS and PC Developer – DontNod Publisher – Square Enix   I’m not too sure where to begin with this review to be quite honest. The last nine months have been absolutely gut wrenching since Life is Strange made its debut in January. As we’ve noted, DontNod does an incredible job of taking a stereotypical, shy 18 year old girl struggling to make decisions with her life and make her completely relatable to everyone, even me a 36 year old man. The opening crawler message says it all for those both new to Life is Strange as well as those continuing with the emotional toll on their bodies. “Choose Wisely” we’re told as our actions directly impact those around us. Yeah. Thanks. Episode 5 Polarized  begins directly after the events of Episode 4’s ending. I’m not going to get into specifics because it will ruin the experience for those newcomers and spoil the journey for those who already have begun. But, notice I used the word experience and not game. That’s what Life is Strange is; an experience more than a game. Being 36 years old, I’ve been playing games since Atari 2600 when I was 5 years old in 1984. Life is Strange is the only game I’ve ever played in my entire life that has impacted me in such an emotional way that it forced me to actually stop playing the game. During the episode, we find out the origin of the storm heading toward Arcadia Bay and have to make a truly lose-lose decision to complete the experience of Life is Strange. And I’m talking real tears here bad. I don’t care, I’ll admit. I’m a 36 year old guy who arrests criminals for a living and I cried at the end of Life is Strange. When the screen popped up with that flashing red light and choices I had to make, I didn’t know what to do at first. I put my controller down, took my headset off and walked out of the room. I was so emotionally invested in the experience at this point that I wanted to finish it but I didn’t want to walk back into the room and choose X or B. Ten minutes later I walked back in and I sat down another five before making my decision: I chose B. The beauty of Life is Strange is that it teaches you every decision you make in life is never as simple as just “that decision”. Everything has an impact on everything no matter how small the decision. At first glance, option X may sound better than option B in a vacuum, but X may result in this, this and that happening which may be worse than option B’s that, that and this results. It’s a truly emotional experience during the 12 hours or so of gameplay you’ll progress through in Life is Strange, but that is because of the magnificent writing by the likes of Christian Divine and the line delivery of the voice actors like Hannah Telle (Max) and Ashly Burch (Chloe). And of course, none of this could have happened without the likes of DontNod and Square Enix. What makes Life is Strange such an epic experience for everyone is how everyone can relate to the same experiences the characters have had. Those who are slightly older than Max like myself in their 30’s have lived through those times in our lives already. Therefore, we question ourselves “Did I make the right decision back then?”, “What would’ve happened if I did this instead?”. Those that are younger around Max’s age haven’t lived long enough to experience these things for the most part, but it shows them the impact their decisions will have when they do reach that point in their lives and allows them to makes those decisions with much more care and responsibility. And then it ends……. After 12 hours of game play, nine months of development and a real chalky bottle of Pepto, the experience of Life is Strange has come to an end. Never before have I suffered from the placebo effect from a game and portrayed the same physical effects from thinking about a game as I did when I actually played it, but that’s what Life is Strange did. DontNod and Square Enix delivered perfectly a manner in which to show people how not to think about yourself, put others first and respect the fact that your decisions impact others in a very powerful way all the while doing it without making us feel pretentious, but vulnerable. Life is Strange is an experience that will stick with you after it’s done. And it will. It will creep up in the back of your mind the next time you reach a critical milestone in your life just like that catchy song on the radio. But don’t worry, that’s a good thing. DontNod has succeeded in making Life is Strange the first real experience (it’s not just a game) that allows all people to live in a way which truly makes them better human beings. Thank you DontNod. Thank you.