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Final Fantasy XV: A Journey of Trepidation

It’s almost time.

For me, and perhaps millions of long-time Final Fantasy fans worldwide, the air has seemingly ceased to move as one of the largest, storied franchises is only two weeks away from releasing its newest entry, Final Fantasy XV.

Square Enix has set a challenging goal for sales at an optimistic 10 million copies . Only Final Fantasy VII has been able to achieve that mark for the franchise, but for whatever reason, that title was exceptionally legendary within the gaming community.

But as far as I can tell, there’s very little at play to suggest that number will be achieved. Lightning Returns barely eclipsed 1 million, and even the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII, across multiple platforms, came a couple million short of the mark.

On the other hand, this is the Final Fantasy many fans have been waiting for since its days of production as “Final Fantasy Versus XIII”. Perhaps a new, near-sandboxy presentation is what the franchise needs. Perhaps the release of the excellent Brotherhood anime series or the underwhelmingly reviewed “Kingsglaive” CG animated movie helped inspire new hope in its lore. Speculation from each “pro” or “nay” camp continues to fly back and forth, even now with copious amounts of information at our disposal.

 

Whispering Headset: A Gamer’s Confessions

Dark, embarrassing gaming secrets you tell absolutely no one… we all have them. And if you aren't embarrassed about anything… well, there's probably a few things you should be embarrassed about!

Whether it's that time you trash talked in Call of Duty only to go 1 kill and 15 deaths in Team Deathmatch or those Hannah Montana trophies you can't delete, we'd love to hear all about it! (SUUUUURE it's because you had to do a review, Ben… We believe you…. Honest! *snicker*)

Even if it's for no other reason other than to make us feel a little better about our own deep, dark gaming secrets, why not take this opportunity behind made up screen names to share your own! No one will ever know. Here are some of mine to help get things started.

1) I really liked Final Fantasy X-2.

Like everyone else you know who says they liked it, I swear up and down it's solely about the gameplay. And that's partly true. The fast-paced, turn-based, job-switching battle system was phenomenal, engaging, and full of tactical opportunity. The gameplay in and of itself made the game worth an approving nod.

But I kinda liked the story, too… And the sphere changes… and the jpop…. please don't tell anyone.

I like sports. Better?

Ok, so I know that's not surprising. It's quite possibly the most popular franchise in the world for a reason. But I've been an enormous critic of its promotion of "twitch culture" and "quick-scoping". And that's still true in regards to quickscoping. But here's the thing… sometimes… when I'm losing… I break out the quick-scope just to catch up a little… Yes, I feel guilty about it. Yes, sometimes I feel like maybe a cold shower is needed after stooping so low. But the raging cries of my enemies calling me various elementary school insults makes it a little better.

And for all my gripes about the never-repaired Call of Duty bugs, I still play it. A ton. Such a hypocrite.

3) I preordered Final Fantasy XV.

I said I wouldn't. I said I hated the demo (I did). I said they're abandoning all that made Final Fantasy great. I said the emo-kids look ridiculous. (They do.) I even said I hope it flops. And by the way… on that last one… what a nasty thing to say, to actually hope for someone's demise.

But something happened… I watched the Kingsglaive movie and the Brotherhood shorts on YouTube, and I gotta say… I absolutely love the lore. And that, mixed with my nostalgia conditioned need for anything Final Fantasy, forced me to take the plunge and pre-order it.

I really hope to be glad I did.

What a jerk I am, right? This "White Knight" syndrome is borderline pathetic. I get it. And it isn't really fair, either. I genuinely am immune to feeling insulted by some random in a game of Call of Duty. But if I get any indication that someone else might be taking the game a little too seriously, I'll try to key in on whatever it is that they feel strongly about in the game, and pick on that a little, even if it is a worldview that I share.

So, you think we should all vote for the person I also think should win the election? Well, I'm still going to tell you the other person is better, anyways if you start telling people you disagree with that they're morons or something. And I'll be sure to use the arguments, true or untrue, that will drive you nuts to have to hear, and I'll be obstinant about it.

If you call people names with words that should never be used as insults, like "gay", well… I might even pretend to flirt with you. In fact, in Call of Duty, I have a beautiful rainbow emblem with the words "Gay is OK" ready to go at a moment's notice. Because lets face it, your personal worldview, especially one as terribly discriminatory and belittling as that, shouldn't really have a place in an anonymous online community. So if you're going to make youself busy making others feel like they don't belong, I'm going to help make you just a little more uncomfortable.

So, yeah, I understand that isn't exactly the best of character to do this kind of thing. My mom told me to walk away from people like that. She's probably right. But in my defense, I never make fun of anyone for truly sensitive things. For example, if you had a speech impediment or sounded like a kid, I would never bully. I only really pick on the guys who are initially abrasive, and I stick to the material.

But still…

5) I always play as a female character when given the choice.

Always.

And some of my friends do, too. The common justification you hear is that "Well, if I have to stare at the back of a character all game, I'd rather see a girl running around."

However, that's extremely shallow and not really true at all. The real truth is that there's something awesome about a strong, interesting female lead in video games. I think it's because there aren't enough of them. I'm very excited to see more and more developers creating great games with strong female leads, so perhaps it isn't needed anymore. But the real truth is, I was getting tired of the usual muscle bound dude getting all the glory. Let's be honest here… women are often just more interesting! And video game women are just cooler.

When you get into it, it isn't really an embarrassing fact. But it is an awkward conversation to start having all the time at home.

"Yes, (insert family member here), I did choose to be a girl… No, that's not why… *sigh*"

I know I'm not alone… I know there's a lot of Fem-Sheps out there!

Doom Review

Graphics:
8.5
Gameplay:
7.8
Sound:
8.0
Control:
9.0
Replay Value:
8.0
Online Gameplay:
7.0
Overall Rating:
8.0
Publisher:
ZeniMax Media
Developer:
Id Software
Number Of Players:
2-8
Genre:
Genre
Release Date:
May 13, 2016


Yeah, super late. I know. I apologize. Got hit with a ton of crazy personal life stuff. I could have left it, I suppose, but I promised I would do one. So here it is!

One of my more favorite times of the year is any time I get to fly home to visit with my family. I probably only get back 2 times a year on average since I live so far away now, but needless to say, it’s always an event I look forward to. In addition to that, if everyone’s schedules line up, my uncles might be around too. Every time there’s at least four of us together, without fail, we make sure to schedule a Euchre night. Granted, we spend most of our time talking away, taking up to 2 hours to finish one game to 10. But that’s more the point, anyways. We just like to revisit the same activity we’ve always enjoyed playing together.

To be honest, I probably wouldn’t enjoy Euchre a whole lot outside of playing with that group. In fact, I don’t ever play it at all unless the whole fam dam is together. That fly-by gaming session for old time's sake is exactly what Doom turns out to be… Just… far… FAR… less tame than a game of Euchre.

The latest Doom is exactly what you remember Doom to be. Many of us who are old enough remember Doom on SNES. At the time, it was revolutionary first person gaming unlike most any other gaming experience we’ve ever had. It’s known for being bloody, gory, fast paced, frantic, demonic, and just generally insane. There is no covering fire, no cover system, no real tactical approach, and that’s exactly the point! Doom has always been the game that makes you feel like a total and complete badass, and Doom carries that mantle and identity to perfection. This is pure, unadulterated fan service.

The second reason is because for those with weak stomachs, you may experience some motion sickness, as I certainly did. The game is very fluid, but it also stays rigidly true to its roots. While I think this is overall a very good thing for a franchise to do, that includes the lack of realism in movement. In a shooter like Call of Duty, Resistance, Killzone, or Gears of War, as you move around the map, you get the “bounciness” of your step or the swaying of your rifle as you hold it in two hands while running. But in doom, you just sort of… float across the map much like you did in the original Doom on SNES. This allows for a faster pace, I think, and a larger emphasis on an arcadey “point and shoot” while frantically moving around. But with the lightning quick movements, many bright, almost neon, colors and incredible amount of things going on at once, I couldn’t play more than 20 minutes at a time without taking a break. One evening, I had to stop gaming entirely. I couldn’t even look at a screen, let alone a video game. Even email was impossible.

Still, I find it difficult to justify penalizing the game too much for that as I assume that’s probably more my issue than the game’s. It also makes me wonder if VR might be an impossibility for me down the road. Still, though, I can’t help but think we’ve come past the glide-walking days to the point that it’s now a distraction that makes me feel like the main character is just a big BB-8 drone from Star Wars with arms.

Doom doesn’t have much of a story to speak of. It’s pretty generic and mostly empty, but again, Doom isn’t about the story anyways. It’s about the action. You’re a crazy, inhuman but kind of human dude who’s pissed off at other humans for allowing all these insane demons to run rampant and literally invade Mars from Hell. Just like real life! Still, I did appreciate small moments of non-verbal storytelling that add to the immersion, even if only slightly. For example, near the start as the game is establishing its story, you hear a voice come over the radio trying to convince you that their motive was to help humanity. As they speak the line about helping people, you look down to the left at an absolutely wrecked corpse of what I assume to be a scientist. Little details, and in a way, small bits of sarcasm really, add to it all.

The trailer might be the most accurate cinematic trailer I have ever seen to portray what the game is really like.

Much like the trailer itself implies, once you finish with a group of enemies in one section of the game, you immediately move to another section with more bad, ready-to-blow-up-your-living-body baddies. The action keeps on pumping, and I expect for many people, it’s an experience taken in best through small doses. You cannot stop moving once the fighting starts. If you try to take cover behind a wall, you’ll just get flanked or rushed by more enemies than you can handle. You need to actively use the entire “arena” to move about shooting and executing your prey. And I mean “arena”, too. It feels like every section of baddies is it’s own enclosed battleground you can’t really move away from until the carnage ends. It regularly happens that you enter an area from another you can no longer return to, and you can’t get the key to move forward until you demolish everything around you first.

In order to be successful, you have to run, shoot, punch, and jump like a madman all over the place. Powerups are occasionally available to help give you that boost, as well. You have this crazy battle suit that gives you superhuman powers, that can generate additional abilities like armour bonus, going berserk, etc. from those powerups. These powerups make it easier to achieve glory kills, which while fun, quickly become too much of a necessary and repetitive action.

In short, a lot is happening in multiplayer mode, and while eventually you’ll catch on, it is definitely not a pick-up-and-play kind of shooter like Call of Duty or Halo. Once you find a way to orient yourself about the maps and the modes, it does fall into place and you are rewarded with a high-paced and fun multiplayer experience. I’m not sure it succeeds well enough to be a game-of-choice compared to other multiplayer games out there, as it quickly gets a little boring, but I do think it services hard-core Doom fans quite well. The only drawback for that crowd might be the fact that most long-time Doom lovers are likely far more interested in the single player, anyway.

Visually, aside from the violence, I found the game to be extremely bland in regards to the environment. There are some creative sections with sparks and fire flying from all directions, but the color palettes of each area feel like they exist within the same base hue. I found myself explaining sections of the map to friend as “the third red area” or “the second blue spot” or “the spaceship looking walkway”. The fact that this was all I needed to say for him to know exactly what I meant should say enough. But the smooth, fluidity kept up beautifully, and I did like the enemy design. Really, it was exactly what we all wanted: high-def recreations of the original demons we loved shooting so dearly. Enemies reacted to being hit exactly where they were hit. Of course, most weapons are so explosive, it’s not like they typically react like you would getting hit by a single bullet to the foot or something. Heck, with most weapons, you’re blowing shit RIGHT up and enemies just…. FLY.

A major perk to the fast speed of the game is the responsive controls. It’s easy to pick up and play through the single player mode, and I didn’t experience any latency issues with my input. I also did not experience any problems with how I interacted with the environment. The control is tight, and for this kind of experience, it better be. Fortunately, Doom rises to the occasion.

Overall, Doom manages to maintain its identity while delivering a high-adrenaline, space cowboy experience that hits hard and shreds flesh harder. While it’s great to have that kind of experience you can return home to and have an absolute blast with for those short, nostalgic pieces of time, it’s not the kind of activity you’ll likely return to outside of those rare visits. The outdated control scheme doesn’t do much new, and it feels wholly artificial through your movements. But what the game lacks in multiplayer, story, and forward-thinking gameplay mechanics, it more than makes up for through its transparency, bold and confident self-identity, and nostalgia.

For those of us returning home for that rare visit, it’s a fun game that’ll bring you back to the good ol’ days. For everyone else, it’s just another game of Euchre.

Mighty No. 9 Review

Graphics:
8.2
Gameplay:
8.0
Sound:
7.2
Control:
7.5
Replay Value:
8.2
Overall Rating:
7.8
Online Gameplay:
Not Rated
Publisher:
Deep Silver
Developer:
comcept
Number Of Players:
1
Genre:
Genre
Release Date:
June 21, 2016


Let me be clear with a disclaimer right off the bat here, folks.

I… LOVE Mega Man. Always have. I loved it on NES, SNES, Gameboy… I loved the original series, I love the Mega Man X series… And I am completely annoyed at the lack of any more X titles. (Stop holding out, Capcom! What happened to Axl after Mega Man X8?) Heck, I even enjoyed the turn-based jRPG styled game, Mega Man X: Command Mission. When I was in grade 1 or 2, anytime we had a spelling test, we had to write a sentence using that word. I distinctly remember writing for the word “Needle” a sentence about Mega Man fighting Needle Man, a boss in one of the more recent Mega Man’s of the day. Yeah… I’ve liked Mega Man for almost as long as I can remember.

So when I heard that Kenji Inafune, the king of all things Mega Man, was going to be creating a spiritual successor to the series, I didn’t need to see anything else. I was going to be buying it day one.

Yes, that’s right. Mighty No 9 basically -IS- Mega Man. I’ve been reading all sorts of comments, questions, and tweets about Mighty No 9 for a while now, and I don’t think this can be said enough.

Mighty No 9 is SUPPOSED to be a “rip-off” of Mega Man. The man responsible for Mega Man headed up the project, so no worries folks. I’m no law expert, but I’m pretty sure Inafune isn’t going to sue himself for plagiarism or whatever the digital version of that is. And by the way, it’s a pretty good rip-off, barring a few inferior aspects and control issues.