One Take: Games: August 2016

Saturday, August 13, 2016

No Man's Sky || Review

The Hype

Well Damn.. It is finally out on PC! No Man's Sky has finally been released yesterday (August 12, 2016) and guess what, I'm one of the hundreds of thousands to buy it on it's release date. Not impressed? Well, okay. Who cares if you're not impressed huh?!

It's only less than 3GB of download so it took me no more than an hour to install it on my PC. And within that hour all I did was assemble my freakin' bed that shipped in that day. Let's get back to the topic. Let's talk about the hype. A lot of people were restless waiting for this game to come out. And I was one of them. My colleagues say that this game is very massive in its own sense because it is not just "open world" it's freaking Open Universe!

Start up

Game starts up with the company's splash screen and all their partners and stuff. After that you get dumped straight into the game. You wake up all doozy and confused, and you seemed to have lost your memory AND your ship is all wrecked and ruined. I won't spoil you any further than that.

You get no bootcamp missions, nor a training simulation run - None of that! Yes, like I said, you get dumped straight into the action. If you want to watch how I started it, here's the video:

Specifics of the Game

Okay so let's talk about the specifics of the game. So far I haven't played around the graphic settings when I played, I just left it as it is. And in my honestly, I got dizzy right from the get-go. The environment looks a little bit "cartoony". It's not that I don't like it, I actually love it!

Gameplay

From what I picked up in 3 hours of straight gaming, you basically have to gather materials to fix your ship. It's a little bit too slow on the start, you get the option to follow an "Atlas" and I do think this orb-like thing will give you the tutorial that you seek. Or you can roam "freely" and I'm assuming this is equivalent to "yes, I would like to write my own story please" option.

So yeah, you gather resources and in the process you destroy the planet's environment. Within the planet they have these "Sentinel" things that roam around basically patrolling the vicinity. And if they catch you destroying their environment - well, they become hostile.|

Aside from the Sentinels, the planets also have countless creatures that roam around. Some are friendly, and others are very very hostile. You have the option to feed them and make them an ally who helps you find stuff on the ground. Or you can zap them with your multi-tool and harvest their bodies. Either or, they will never help you on their own accord.

The Story of the Game

I honestly don't get the story of the game YET. So far what I picked up is that, there's the "Atlas" that should guide you through out the game but I decided not to select that option. And during my play time, I've encountered only a handful of intelligent life form in the entire freaking galaxy! And during some of my encounters with these life forms, they send me messages and letters that come from another person who they don't even know. So from that, I can make up that someone is trying to contact me. Another "Greater" intelligent life form is either trying to help me because they care, or they're helping me because they are trying to get me to do something in return.

My take

As I have shown above, I can say that No Man's Sky is a very interesting game. The concept is unique and it's a first of its kind. Should you buy it? Well that's a yes and a no depending on some certain aspects. If you don't like slow starting games that do not give you that BIG quest right from the get-go then don't get it. If you like to explore and create and gather, and if you like the slow but sure pace that eventually leans you towards a bigger goal, then yes, you absolutely must buy it!

My take on this game is that it is a great game. No the ultimate game YET, but this one has potential. I'm looking forward to patches and updates from the developers - see if they unleash some kick-ass contents and events soon.

Dota 2 || Review

Roots

Strategy games have gone through so much evolution in the years passed. New Genres are constantly being developed and the old ones just keep getting better and better. While more and more genres and variations are created, one genre is getting so much attention in the world of competitive gaming. Real Time Strategy gaming, or better known as RTS, has gotten so famous to the point that the prize pool in the big league tournaments amount to millions of dollars. Only a handful of games within this genre can pull this off - in comes Dota 2.

Dota 2 is not your regular RTS though, it belongs to a subgenre of RTS called Action Real-Time Strategy (ARTS) or more famously known as Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games. To put it in simple english, it basically has the same concept as RTS but instead of using multiple units at a time, you just stick to, and roll with, a single unit equipped with multiple abilities at your disposal.

The World of the Ancients

Dota 2 has a very unique history in fact, you can trace it all the way back to the famous Warcraft III: Frozen Throne mod called DotA Allstars. This is one of the few games where I followed all of the patch notes night in and night out. I learned all the glitches of the game, I read how-to guides, I even wrote my own hero guides. I grew up with it. You can check out my blog about DotA.

As a kid who grew up in the 90's and who got into gaming in the 20's, all I ever played on PC were games such as Counter-Strike, Age of Empires and Unreal Tournament. I played a little bit of StarCraft but that's about it. I didn't even know that StarCraft belonged to RTS genre back in the day. Heck, I didn't even know about RTS until recently. I knew about the games, how to play them, but I never really knew what genre they belonged to. To me, games were just games - that's it.

Gameplay and Skins

As a huge fan of DotA Allstars I can testify that Dota 2 really impressed me. While Dota 2 is behind with the total number heroes live that are available to play compared to the OG DotA, that is probably the only issue I have. I was saddened when valve developers took out my favorite bug exploits such as Mirana's legendary "back-arrow" move and that mythical "Forcestaff-Blink" instant transmission technique. These game glitches were so fun and so difficult to execute in-game that if you were able to pull it off during multiplayer match it'll give you a lifetime's worth of bragging rights.

Aside from that, the overall gameplay on Dota 2 is very smooth and it gives you a different yet welcoming feel to both new players and veteran players alike. Valve implemented Skins that allow players to give a custom feel to their hero pool. My personal favorites are Phantom Assassin's Manifold Paradox Bundle, Pudge's Murder of Crows, Legion Commander's Blades of Voth Domosh, and Sven's Forge of Ironwill set.

Community and Updates

Dota 2 has a huge fan base. And like every game, the community is divided between the good and the bad. Luckily for us, majority of the population are pretty chill while the rest are either douchebags or trolls. But fear not, I have never cued in a matchmaking where all 9 players playing with me are the bad boys of the league. Update-wise, valve releases patches available to be downloaded in steam every often. Especially when The International tournament is approaching. Hero nerfs and item changes gets released when Icefrog decides to, which now happens every month. And just a month ago, they unleashed a huge map change. I will put up a blog to show the difference between the map then and the map now. Good thing about Dota 2 is if you're new to the game, you'll pick up pretty fast because of all of the guides available online now compared to 10 years ago. If you're a veteran and you stopped playing for a very long, long time - things might be a little bit on the downside for you. But fear not, like I said, there's a huge pool out there to guide you through all the changes.

My Take

Dota 2 is a VERY competitive game. People will come at you tooth and nail just to win, whether you are a friend or foe. Despite this, Dota 2 has a huge amount of fan base out there. Majority of the community is friendlier than you think. Updates and patches come out often, and Valve's support team is very active. All in all, I will put it out there that Dota is a great game, and I am not saying it because I'm biased or anything, I am saying it because I've known the game pretty much my entire life. And all I could say through out the years that I've watched Dota grow is that I have never seen a sequel to a game I've loved so much as good as this one. That's everything. I hope you guys picked up useful information from this. Peace out!

Thursday, August 4, 2016

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt || Review

A Game Well Done!

To start this off I have to say that I got nothing else for this game but love and praise. From the intro cutscene to the actual gameplay - all the way to my first boss fight, there was nothing but perfection. I got blown away by the overall experience.

Dialogue to Perfection

The first thing I loved about this game is its comical dialogue between characters. Every conversation presents a story. Some are more serious than others, while there are modest amounts of interesting yet funny conversations. Our protagonist is very witty. But some personalities you encounter during the game are - well, very intriguing. Skip to minute mark @1:40 of this video and see for yourself. It is a dialogue between the protagonist and, I would say, THE best butler that I've seen in my life.

Brains vs Brawns

^{You will never believe the amount of torture I went through just to figure out how to properly maneuver within combat situations.}

I've fought ghouls in this game that are waaay tougher to beat than Metal Gear Rex from Metal Gear Solid 2. I got tired of dying to the point that I did not play the game for 2 days. Wait I think I got the game difficulty set to Savage mode. That said, this game encourages you to actually prepare for a hunt before you depart to engage the monster. I completely ignored that part of the game and as a result my head got served for dinner.

While it is possible to dodge attacks, it requires perfect execution in order to successfully avoid the damage dealt by enemies. Of course, that requires practice. You are able to perform combos by, yeah, mashing the LMB(Left Mouse Button). You have a set amount of spells that you can cast, which are called signs: Aard, Igni, Yrden, Quen, Axii. All these signs are acquired when you start the game and can be leveled up as you progress.

Worlds and Quests

While the game boasts a nice plot and setting, the side quests are as equally interesting as its main story. This picture is a screenshot that I took as I was acquiring the infamous "Pan Quest." Yes, you heard me, a quest involving pans. This is just one in a vast number of quest that will make you scratch your head as soon as you get them.

And like I mentioned back in my Witcher 3 Expectation article, this game is openworld. I have not played more than half of the entire story yet so I am not sure if there's more of the world that you can explore, but damn - I sure hope it's not as huge as the world of Skyrim.

My Take

As can be seen above, this game is phenomenal. If I were to rate it from 1 to 10 - 1 being bad and 10 being awesome - then I would give this a perfect 10. It is one of a kind. The conversations alone are enough to keep you entertained. The drama and story is very captivating. The combat makes you work for your money. And the graphics is unreal. Overall, this game is a must-have! I highly recommend it. That's all for this article. Peace!