Tag Archives: borderlands

Happy Wrestling Day

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Holidays, full swing. Hopefully yours have been pleasant. Happy Holidays to all. This year, like last year, we are in the middle of COVID restrictions. So we didn’t spend time with family save for a presents and gifts swap from the front door. Maybe things will settle down again in the New Year.

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What I’m Playing

Halo Infinite has been the game of choice, Multiplayer, not Campaign, which is very un-like me. But for some reason this multiplayer experience has been fun, and I’m going to ride that wave while it lasts. I bought the Battle Pass, and the Cat Ears and everything:

I also bought my son Hot Wheels Unleased for Christmas, so we’ve been playing a bit of that. I tried The Gunk briefly tonight. Which is a enjoyable platformer/puzzle game where you start by investigating a dying planet and find a gunk-like substance that is consuming the planet’s energy. You have a grapple/gun-type arm that sucks it up and slowly start healing the planet. Its free on Game Pass. Dirt 5, ripped through another DLC, only one more to go.

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True to my word, I’ve put down the digital pen, and taken a break from drawing. I have a few ideas queued for the New Year. My will may break this week as I have a few days off work, but I might use those to just catch up on sleep, and comics.

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What I’m Reading

  • Batman/Catwoman #9
  • Catwoman Lonely City #2
  • Gunslinger Spawn #3
  • Radiant Black #11
  • A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance #3
  • Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow #6
  • Batgirls #1
  • Nightwing #87
  • Nightwing Leaping into the Light HC Vol.1
  • SPAWN Compendium 2

I hate to say it but I’ve been really disappointed with Batman/Cawoman ever since Liam Sharp took over. I don’t know why he took over from Clay Mann, whether it was some behind-the-scene thing, or deadlines or if he had other obligations but I’m just not a fan of the art since the switch which has really turned me off the book sadly. And I am a huge Tom King fan. I’ll push through to the end, but begrudgingly.

Nightwing is not my typical book, but I’ve head a lot of good things from this run with Tom Taylor, and #87 in particular is one long no-frames un-cut sequence which is pretty cool to pull off within a comic book.

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2021 Reviews Done Quickly

I’m just going to add the list here for now, and then by the end of the week, write up the full post. These are the games I completed or consider done with, in 2021. Some of which may not have been released in 2021, likely earlier. And when I say complete, I mean either I 100%’d it, finished the main campaign story if it is open-ended or has end-game content, or I consider it done enough that I won’t be revisiting it. Also the order below is roughly Jan through Dec, for when I completed the game, and not necessarily when I started the game. You’ll get the idea as you read the list.

I usually start with the main game from the previous year that I wrapped up the year with, and that was Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and the finish with my in-progress, not-ready-for-review games.

  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
  • Little Nightmares
  • Donut County
  • The Touryst
  • Fortified
  • Generation Zero
  • Just Cause 4
  • Zombie Army 4: Dead War
  • Rain on Your Parade
  • Marvel’s Avengers
  • NieR:Automata
  • Super Lucky’s Tale
  • OUTRIDERS
  • Boomerang-Fu
  • Twelve Minutes
  • Surgeon Simulator 2
  • Aliens: Fireteam Elite
  • Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
  • Morkredd
  • Dirt 5

    in Progress
  • Watch Dog’s Legion
  • Grand Theft Auto III
  • Borderlands III

Good riddance 2021! On to Twenty-Twenty Too!

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iRogan

IDL FEATURE – PAX Day One: Stickers and Lanyards, Cosplayers and Weddings

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-I arrived into Seattle at around 11:30pm Thursday night in anticipation for the 4 days that will follow. The eve of PAX Prime 2015 is finally here, and I am excited as ever. This will be my 7th year in a row at PAX Prime, and the show gets better and better, although more spread out than ever.

-Not only does the 4 day convention take over all 6 floors of the Seattle Trade and Convention Centre, but also the adjacent Annex but the surrounding 4 hotels and two theatres. The weekend takes over the downtown district of Seattle every year.

Day 1 – PAX Prime 2015

-Day 1 started for me, around 12PM. Having the passes already, I didn’t need the lineups or waiting around. I can do PAX on my own time, thanks.

-Our first stop was to go straight to the 4th floor Exhibition hall and check out the new exhibits. First stop after the trip of 3 escalators, passing hundreds of other participants, is the Small Dev, Tech Land and Indie exhibit hall. Highlighted by the always popular Behemoth Booth

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-Every year I buy a Castle Crasher figurine and get it signed by the artist and developer, and this year they were handing out unique lanyard, and empty swag bags primed for filling.

IMG_4847-This exhibit hall is filled with many of the smaller devs, indie devs, larger tech companies advertising their wares, and geeky companies selling their gaming swag. As this is also one of the main entrance points, it is also populated by a lot of cosplayers.

-Cosplayers roam everywhere, and this year, unlike previous, patrons have been asked to refrain from taking photos inside the exhibit halls stopping the flow of traffic, and instead asked to do it outside the halls in the open areas.As there are SO MANY people roaming around, traffic flow is important, and prevents accident collisions.

-The indie hall is always a lot of fun to see the smaller up-and-comers on display, and team like Behemoth or Team Meat showing their new stuff. But as day one is primary just a quick tour to see whats available, we list our favourites and move on. We have 3 more days to actually spend quality time with our favs, but today is to take it all in.

-Center skybridge is available to more sales teams and alternative mediums,like comic books, furniture,tech equipment, and cards. Cards Against Humanity a popular feature, and MAGIC. Skybridge is a popular meeting area for groups, and cosplayers, thanks to the lighting.

-Into the main hall Battleborn is the highlighted entrance feature. 2K’s and Gearbox’s next big game. Play solo, or co-op or split screen, the game features first person shooter gameplay involving 5 heroes on the map against waves of enemies and other heroes in competitive. The game boasts 25 playable heroes at launch in February, 2016. Every hero is unique, with lots featuring melee or snipers.

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-Xbox have big booths dedicated to Rise of the Tomb Raider and Halo 5. Playstation has the Uncharted Collection featured, and Uncharted 2 playable. I briefly played the demo for Uncharted 2. I’d played this originally on the PS3, and it plays just as good now. It does feel a little more colourful, and plays a tiny bit more cartoony, more blood, more animated. Maybe I’m just remembering it wrong. It does play smooth though, and as fun as ever.

-Ubisoft has Rainbow Six Siege playable, which I’m stoked for, and Tom Clancy’s The Division as well.

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-Heavily featured is Deep Silvers Homefront: The Revolution. This for sure I will get my hands on as I loved the first, and I’m curious to try out the latest iteration, and new direction.

-Mad Max and Just Cause 3 have big dedicated areas this year and I’ll be hoping to try these out, Mad Max comes out next week so it would be nice to get some early impressions before it shows up at my door.

-Bethesda also has a large corner all to themselves, as they have Fallout 4 featured, and Dishonored 2. Talking and moving and everything.

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-Done with our first quick tour, we headed off towards Gameworks and had lunch. Gameworks is Seattle’s large arcade and restaurant. After lunch we went to the Westin Hotel for the PAX Swag Bag. On the streets we see Mad Max in full advertising mode, joining with Uber.

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-Swag bags this year have the staples: MAGIC card pack, and lots of adverts and giveaways. Included is also a beta code for Rainbow Six Siege.

-Heading back to the convention hall for a quick 2nd tour we spend a little more time in the first exhibit hall, saw the Assassin’s Creed Syndicate area, which I assume is a closed demo, and played some Street Fighter V for a few rounds.

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-The only panel we went to today was the Gearbox Software Showcase. Filled to capacity, the Main Theatre is the Benaroya Hall. Getting there takes a quick walk through some less-than-clean streets, but we find the line, and get inside.

-Gearbox had a lot to talk about today, primarily focusing on Borderlands, Tales From The Borderlands, and Battleborn.

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-Tales from the Borderlands takes the main focus as they show the trailer for the latest episode, discuss the bringing on of Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson as voices, and state that they’ve had a great experience working alongside another company to expand the Borderlands brand. They then announce that 2K and Gearbox have joined with Lionsgate as well as Ari and Avi Arad to release a Borderland movie! Huge news. And exciting.

-Battleborn is discussed at length, and they bring out the devs and artists to discuss some of the character designs, and they go through the Helix for a few, highlighting some of the special abilities. Thousands of different characters combinations, coupled with 5 members to a team, equaling millions of team combinations.

-Next up was the cosplay showcase during the panel, and a couple got married in front of the whole crowd.

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-Wrapping up the panel, Randy Pitchford did an amazing magic trick, and then discussed Homeworld, and the dev’s new game, Shipwreckers. Everyone in attendance was given a free copy of Homeworld Remastered, sending everyone home happy.

-On the way back we stopped in at the Convention Centre Annex and saw some of The Magic card tournament setup and free play, and checked out the Bring Your Own Computer floor and PC Freeplay floor. As the convention exhibition hall had closed, this area was quite busy with large lines, so we left, and said good-bye to day one.

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Back tomorrow, with Day 2, and more dedicated impressions of games I played.

-iRogan

iReview – TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS EP 1: ZER0 SUM

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“You’re- you’re really cool… I just- I wanted you to know that.”

Title: Tales from the Borderlands – Episode 1: Zer0 Sum
Developer: Telltale Games
Platform: Android, iOS, PC, Mac, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
Publisher: Telltale Games
Reviewed on: Xbox One

Me, me me. Me, too.

Me, me me.

Tales from the Borderlands is an episodic adventure comedy, typical to Telltale Games, only this time around, based on the Borderlands series. Like The Walking Dead or The Wolf Among Us series previously, Tales from the Borderlands uses the 5 episode formula, 6 chapters per episode, where the player’s choices and actions affect the story later on. As the player, you get to move around and interact with the environments, and initiate conversations with the other story’s non-playable characters. These conversations lead the story the way you see fit, and this is where your comments and replies may impact a certain character’s views of you. The game also utilizes quick-time sequences for the action parts.

Me too.

Me too.

You play the game from two different perspectives; the first as Rhys, who is a Hyperion employee – the company man – trying to make it up the ranks. The problem with Hyperion, besides being a soulless corporation, is there’s no apparent HR department, so Rhys (or we the player) quickly finds out that his previous boss has been murdered and replaced by a new boss, and nemesis, in Vasquez. And subsequently, Rhys has been demoted to janitor.

We overhear Vasquez making a deal for a Vault Key; a deal which will take place on Pandora. We meet up with our friend Vaughn who’s the resident accountant, and make a plan to meet the dealers and make the trade for the Vault Key before Vasquez.

On the other side of the coin, we also play as Fiona, who, with her sister Sasha, work with Felix, and as partners, are a bunch of con artists.  They are the ones responsible for this deal, and we quickly learn that the Vault Key is actually a fake.

During the transaction, everything gets interrupted by the resident boss, Bossanova, who steals the money, and Zer0, the resident Vault Hunter, trying to take down Bossanova.

The two groups, now forced to work together to recover the money, track down Bossanova to his base, where the episode comes to a head. At the base, a huge bandit race is taking place, with the winner to receive the prize money – the money which was originally brought to Pandora by Rhys and Vaugh for a fake Vault Key make by Fiona, Sasha and Felix, remember?.

At the end of Episode One we see the first appearance of Handsome Jack, and are left with a cliff-hanger to his intentions with the group.

“This is why people play these types of games a few times through, to get different outcomes.”

Throughout the game the choices you make will affect the story elements going forward through the remainder of this and future episodes. Understandably, this is why people play these types of games a few times through, to get different outcomes. Luckily each episode is only a couple hours from start to finish.

As you play through, some of the choices you make, or are about to make, are unexpected, while others a little more obvious. They will not impact your ability to beat the game, or that episode per se, but the results might not be entirely favourable in your eye. At this point, we don’t know how our choices will impact our game in later episodes. Something I’m excited to find out.

This is my first attempt at playing a Telltale game since The Walking Dead Episode 1, and this is by far a huge improvement. The game moves by at a quick pace. There’s less puzzles, and quicker quick-time events. My change of opinion may also solely rest on the source material as I’ve always been a big fan of the Borderlands world. It has, however, put Telltale Games into my good books, and luckily I have the Xbox One bundle to jump into once Borderlands wraps up Season One.

“The humour is here, in droves, and this works well in Telltales favour.”

The Borderlands world suits itself well to the Telltale visual style, if not it’s gameplay. The models are designed nicely and suit the world, however the animations are a little stiff. That being said, the Borderlands series has always been hilarious, and luckily, the humour is here, in droves, and this works well in Telltales favour. Its also nice to see some familiar faces show up.

I found The Walking Dead to be too slow and methodical (again maybe due to the source material), and luckily Borderlands is quick and concise, eager to move ahead, but tells an interesting tale. The finale of Episode One takes place during a large bandit race, and this sequence, primarily done with quick time events, has a lot of moving parts all pulled off very well.

This first episode has me hopeful for the future of this series, and has piqued my interest to the other Telltale properties in The Wolf Among Us and Game of Thrones.

– For those who like Borderlands, Telltale Games, and humour.

(Only downside is you can’t miss any achievements, so none are notable 😦 )

-iRogan

WHAT I’M PLAYING / NEWS – Far Cry and The Handsome Collection and News

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Far Cry 4

As I had mentioned in the past couple posts, I’ve been playing Far Cry 4 a lot. The game is a lot of fun and so random at times. It also caters to the creative types who want to have fun. Lately I’ve been playing in Co-op, but upon switching roles, I’ve noticed there are some limitations.

Co-Op Glory

Co-Op Glory

For starters, it runs off the hosts’s game, therefore the host will retain any of the map progress that the pair unlock: Bell Towers, Forts, Outposts. The joining partner only retains the XP, loot, and and unlocked perks. Loading up their own game will see the Map progress returned to their previous single-player campaign progress. This is kind of unfortunate. It still fun though as there are a lot of activities the two can take part in.

The game also prevents the two of you from getting too far apart from one another. At a certain point, the other player will be forced to spawn closer.

Keep an eye out for Screenshots once the Xbox Upload app gets updated, and a proper review around the corner.

Forza Horizons 2 Presents Fast and Furious

I recently wrote a quite review of this game, and wrapped it up today. Easy 1000G achievements, and maybe 2hrs of gameplay. It really is just a glorified demo as it only has 11 driveable cars, and 1/4 of the Forza Horizons 2 map. At the end it encourages you to buy the real game. Which you should. Forza Horizons 2 review here.

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The Handsome Collection

I picked this up today, and I’m excited to start in the Pre-Sequel. When the Pre-Sequel was announced and released for the Xbox 360 last year, I really hoped that a current-gen version would be released. I didn’t even need it to be re-mastered. Luckily I got more than I wanted. Borderlands 2 (including DLC) and the Pre-Sequel (including DLC), all remastered and combined into one package.

The only issue I’ve seen so far is the games are separated. Nothing transfers over, and they actually install as two different games. So if you want to switch, you need to quit one and launch the other. Just lazy complaints.

So Handsome

So Handsome

Keep an eye out for Tales From the Borderlands Episode 1 – Sum Zero review tomorrow. All borderlands all the time it seems.

Sunset Overdrive Price Drop

Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive has received a price drop, down to $40. This isn’t a deal, but a permanent drop. i’ll pick this up when it goes on sale, though. I tried it during the 24hr free period, and it was fun. But it’s a playground game, where I typically prefer more of a narrative to drive me. 😉

Kojima’s Role in Silent Hills

Kojima’s role in Silent Hills is, at this point, still a mystery. His name, and Kojima Productions is continuing to be removed from all Konami products and websites as Konami focuses their company into a concise direction. Unknown, is if Kojima will still have a role in Silent Hills, or if it will be made by Kojima Productions. I guess we’ll have to continue to wait and see. 😦

Assassin Creed Chronicles

Ubisoft has announced the 2.5D trilogy in Assassin’s Creed Chronicle.

I watched a bit of footage from the first iteration in China and it looks pretty cool, with an interesting art style. Gameplay very much like Rayman Legends, Deadlight or early Prince of Persia games. Its a linear 2.5D platformer where you spend a lot of time running from left to right, up ladders and down buildings, slicing and dicing the whole way. Seems neat but I’m not sure where the story ties into.

We’ll see as more info gets released.

Excited for a games filled Easter Long Weekend. Stick around, but don’t forget to go outside.

-iRogan

NEWS – Forzas, Far Crys, Borderlands, oh my.

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First things first, but not necessarily in that order: New Design.

I’m not sure if I like it yet, as visually, I really prefer the whole text-blog look. I find the feels of the tile mosaic overwhelming, but I can understand how reading the previous way, things get overlooked. These are raw emotions.

We’ll see how it goes for now. Once you actually start filtering things down into categories its easier to find things. I’ll start titling things to their respective categories, which I had previously only done with reviews.

Also posted over the weekend was a new screenshots page. So far I have Forza Horizons 2, GTA V (360 edition), and Saints Row III. I’m really liking the new screenshot options on the Xbox One, so expect some from Far Cry 4 once the Upload app gets up-dated. 😉

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Earlier today I posted a quick review of Forza Horizons 2‘s presentation of Fast and Furious tie-in game content. While not bad, its weird how it all came about, presented as its own stand-alone thing, with achievements, and free for a limited time. Its nothing more than a demo of what Forza Horizons 2 is, with some movie-centric cars.

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I completed Episode 1 of Tales from the Borderlands and will be posting a quick review of that for Thursday before starting Episode 2. I’ve also been playing Far Cry 4 a lot, inferred from the mention of screenshots I suppose. Expect a more thorough impression write-up on Wednesday for What I’m Playing feature, and a proper review. I’ve been playing it in co-op but reached a point where further story progression is necessary. The game elements are just so random and hilarious sometimes. I hope to get a Short Story out of that game soon too.

Well enough about me…

Evolve’s New Hunters

Probably better suited to tomorrow’s update, but Evolve is getting a big content update tomorrow, which includes 4 DLC characters. Slim, the new Medic, Sunny, the new Support, Crow, the new Trapper, and Torvald, the new Assault. Behemoth is the new Monster being released.

Sadly I haven’t had the opportunity to try this game yet. It doesn’t cater to my typical game, but if it drops in price like Titanfall, might be worth looking into.

April Games With Gold

To celebrate 100 million games downloads, Microsoft is doubling down on the free Xbox Games with Gold in April:

Xbox One

  • Pool Nation FX
  • Child of Light

Xbox 360

  • Gears of War: Judgment (Available from April 1-15)
  • Terraria (Available from April 1-15)
  • Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Available from April 16-31)
  • Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel (Available from April 16-31)

I’ll give Pool Nation and Child of Light a shot, but I’m not sure it’ll be my style of game. Unfortunately the 360 games I have. 😦

Half-Life 2: Update

The fan-created mod for Half Life 2, titled Half-Life 2: Update has been released on Steam free of charge. The 7GB update has numerous visual enhancements and bug fixes. Half-Life 2 has always been my favourite game and this serves as another opportunity to go back and revisit it. Maybe keep an eye out for some screen shots from that :).

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

Requires a day one patch of 16GB on the Xbox One and 8.3GB on the PS4. Yikes. Luckily I have the storage. But do you?

I’m curious how big the game’s install is alone. I’ll be picking this up on Thursday. Eee!

Black Tusk Teasing Gears of War

Its not much, but Black Tusk has teased some Gears of War stuff via a Twitter picture Friday. Just a quick photo from a mo-cap shoot, but its still exciting to know that they are working on another Gears of War.

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Halo 5 Dates

At the end of the HuntTheTruth trailer featuring Master Chief and Locke, the release for Halo 5: Guardians is announced as Oct 27th, 2015.

See you tomorrow with this weeks new games and DLC.

-iRogan