Since Call of Duty: WWII was released last week, I have spent majority of my gaming time playing it. In September I wrote a piece outlining my thoughts on the beta and how they could improve. After playing some online matches, it became clear that Sledgehammer was not messing around when they said they were “returning COD to its roots .” However, it has not escaped being infected by contemporary gaming trends that have left WWII suffering from an identity crisis.     The campaign certainly feels like a throw back to the heyday of WWII shooters. They even ditched automatic health regeneration that has become a staple for the series and replaced it with heal packs as the only way to heal, something I have not experienced since the Xbox and PS2 days. The story is mediocre, but I was not expecting something new and exciting from a WWII time period that has been sucked dry of any new narrative. The campaign feels like an afterthought, almost like they included it because it...

I started playing BioShock when it first came out in 2007. I just finished it last week and it took me 10 years to do it. I have previously written about why I think it takes me so long to finish a game so I won’t discuss that here. My only regret is that it took me this long to finally beat it. The story of BioShock is both interesting and terrifying. The city of Rapture was designed to be a utopia for the elites, free from the constraints of human government and society. Its creator, Andrew Ryan is a bit of a megalomaniac and this becomes more apparent as the game goes on.       BioShock has one of the most dramatic opening sequences I have experienced in a game. Without giving too much away, you end up in the middle of the ocean, staring at a large tower protruding out of the waves beckoning you to approach. After entering, you start your mysterious journey into the underwater city of Rapture. Upon entry you quickly discover that something has go...

BioWare’s Mass Effect: Andromeda was hit with controversy before its release and even harder after it. A lot was expected from the game and critics were quick to jump on it. MEA took a lot of heat for bugs and bad facial animations and even I jumped on the  band wagon . I have been thinking a lot since it happened and I keep coming back to this question, “Why do we attack some games while we let others get a free pass?” Most games have bugs and glitches when they are first released. Developers usually always deliver new games with a day one patch to address issues that may arise. So what causes us to see the problems of some games and not others? Part of the reason is because we have high expectations for triple A titles. We expect games like Call of Duty , Madden , Mario and Zelda to never have bugs. Their long history of success with sequels should mean that by now the game should be perfected. We tend to give new games with bugs the benefit of the doubt but little to ...

Of all the games that were released in the first quarter of the year, the one I was the most excited about was Night in the Woods . For some reason the game called to me even though I knew next to nothing about it. I found out I enjoyed the art direction and game concept from a few screen shots, one preview video, and an abstract from the studio’s website. It looked like it contained everything I love about a game: story, deep themes, and action, but I had no idea how personal the story would be to me. NITW is a side scrolling adventure game that takes place in a crumbling blue collar town called Possum Springs. The town is based off the real world rustbelt cities in the U.S. that have seen jobs move overseas, crime rise, and infrastructure decay. Interestingly, the citizens of Possum Springs are not human, but instead animals. You play the game as Mae Borowski, a cat punk rocker, bass playing, college dropout who moved back home. Your friends, Gregg, Bea, and Angus catch you up ...

BioWare has put out some great games over the years. I played through the original Dragon Age and fell in love with Dragon Age: Inquisition . I also really enjoyed playing the Mass Effect games so when Mass Effect Andromeda (MEA) was announced I immediately jumped on the hype train. But before the official release the internet blew up with criticism of the facial animations in game. Not only were people complaining, they also harassed a woman who was thought to have worked as lead animator. It got so bad that BioWare had to respond denying her involvement with the title. Crazy internet trolling aside the complaints got me thinking, as a consumer how do I justify spending $60 on a product with clear faults? When you make a purchase of anything you expect the best quality money can buy. If you buy a toaster that does not work, you send it back. If you buy a shirt that is ripped you send it back. But when you buy a game that is graphically broken you keep it?  The old...

My reaction when I first saw the Nintendo Switch was something like this: “Here we go again. Nintendo trying to push innovation and continuing to abandon the standard console model.” Since the release of the Wii, Nintendo has placed more value in designing innovative systems instead of adhering to the standard box top set that Sony and Microsoft have. The Wii utilized motion sensor controllers instead of the generic double stick gamepad, the Wii U upped the ante by giving the controller a screen to second the one on the television set. Because of their desire to be the black sheep of the console family they have trouble attracting third party support and instead, rely on their own household names like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon to fill their library. Their constant efforts to push ingenuity and be different has resulted in Sony and Microsoft being the first choice of consoles for developers to build their games. Despite all of this Nintendo has remained competitive in t...

I was going to take this post to discuss a few of my favorite games from this past year but instead I thought it might be a better idea to look forward instead of looking back so I am going to write about two new games I am looking forward to playing in 2017. For Honor is a new game in development by Ubisoft that utilizes melee weapon combat and puts you in the role of either Vikings, Knights or Samurai. The three factions are in perpetual warfare with each other and it is the player’s responsibility to bring victory to your chosen faction.     The most interesting aspect of the game is its unique combat system. Instead of using basic inputs such as hitting one button to slash and another to do a power attack, the system utilizes the control sticks to mimic something close to real sword duels. It allows for one on one combat to be a guessing game of what your opponent will do next. Move the stick slightly to the write and you will parry an incoming blow, but move it ...

 The holiday season is always chaotic and a mix of emotion for me as I am sure it is for many others. It’s the time where you either love to see your family or you pretend to, and you give them gifts accordingly. Looking back on it, as a child the holidays represented more than gifts and giving, it represented the one time of year where my sister and I bonded and understood each other and a large part of the reason for this is because of video games. Growing up my sister and I both loved playing video games. She had an original Game Boy with Super Mario, Tetris and Kirby. It was one of her most prized possessions and she loved it, secretly I did too. I would have to wait until she was gone to sneak into her room and play it or if I was lucky, she would let me play it when she was home. She was pretty good at sharing when she wanted to and we both had a good time playing, that is when we weren’t fighting. My sister and I were almost always at odds. We bickered and fought...

Yesterday Nintendo released the NES Classic in the United States. Gamers everywhere salivated at the thought of being able to relive their childhood memories by playing NES classics like Super Mario Bros, Punchout and The Legend of Zelda. But in typical Nintendo fashion they bungled the release. The NES Classic sold out in every store within minutes of opening and some did not even receive any. Stores that were lucky enough to have some were only given a limited supply, some as few as ten. So why did Nintendo fail to anticipate the excitement of the release? simple they didn't. Nintendo has a history of failing to understand supply and demand. The Wii was one of the hottest systems to own 8 years ago. But Nintendo was never able to keep up with demand. During the holiday season 2009, they doubled their supplies but were still unable to make sure stores across the U.S. were stocked. Similarly the Majora's Mask 3DSXL went out of stock in mere minutes after its release. N...

I recently wrote an article on the importance of remakes and why they are more than just a money grab. Since then then I have put more thought into the pitfalls that follow their success. Replaying the BioShock series and diving back into Call of Duty 4 is great but they do not add any new ideas. I fear that the growing amount of remakes is a sign that game publishers and studios are losing confidence in their own creativity. To explain this further I want to use Hollywood as an example. Movie studios have recently been criticized for regurgitating the same principal ideas into the movies they create. Every year a new super hero movie comes out and it is largely the same premise. Good guy with super powers fights bad guy with super powers to save the world, with some change ups in between. Super hero movies are fun and provide entertainment plus revenue for movie studios that desperately need it. But they do not add anything new and creative to the silver screen. A super hero ...

I have a problem with playing games and never finishing them. For me the conclusion of a game brings all of the fun and excitement I had while playing crashing down. It stops the story, the character development and all of the great experiences you had within the game. Simply it just ends. The game that defines this experience perfectly for me is Bully . For those that don’t know Bully is a game developed by Rockstar (The creators of Grand Theft Auto ). The game takes place at a school for delinquent children called Bullworth Academy. You play the role of bad boy Jimmy Hopkins who takes on missions for the various groups in the school (nerds, jocks, preps, etc.). The story plays out very much like Grand Theft Auto and you can customize Jimmy in a similar fashion to characters in GTA. The weird thing is Bully is one of my favorite games of all time and yet I have never beat it. It is hard for me to believe I haven’t beaten the game and I have been playing it since it was fir...

On September 6, 2016 I attempted to log into PlayStation Network (PSN) only to discover that it was offline. This isn’t surprising for me and many others users who have faithfully stuck by Sony as its online services have gone down time and time again. PSN is a paid for service and users have to sign up for a paid subscription called PlayStation Plus in order to play online games.  What makes this most recent outage more frustrating is the fact that it was recently announced that the cost of an online subscription is increasing, making customers pay more for a service that is inconsistent at best. It is true that Sony has not raised the cost of PlayStation Plus in quite some time but why should users pay more for a product that lacks features and is unreliable? As far as I know Sony is offering no new features that warrant a price hike which is a shame because there are plenty of improvements that can be made. It would be nice if Sony would allow users to change their PSN user...

When I was in elementary school Pokémon was my life. I remember when the first kid brought Pokémon cards into class. Everyone was amazed and I think we all went home and begged our parents to buy us some, I know I sure did! So when I walked into my classroom the next day with my new starter pack I thought I was going to be the best there ever was! But to my surprise many others had the same starter pack and the same idea. After that period of my life Pokémon has taken a backseat to many of my other gaming interests. I will pick up a new game here and there but I never invest the time and energy into making my Pokémon the best. When Pokémon Go came out it reinvigorated my interest and got me excited for the next games in the series, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon . So if you are like me, and you grew up in the privileged generation that experienced the original 150 Pokémon, you can understand me when I say that the new generation of Pokémon absolutely suck! Ok maybe suck is too har...