And I feel fine…. Games to be excited for:
Assassins Creed:Origins
Call of Duty WWII
Crackdown 3
The Crew II
Days Gone
Destiny 2
Far Cry 5
God of War
The Last of Us Part II
Middle-Earth: Shadow of War
Need for Speed: Payback
Sea of Thieves
Star Wars Battlefront II
State of Decay 2
Spider-Man
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
🙂
There’s a couple things I still wish to accomplish with this Video Game blog.
One is to start to post more gameplay footage. When I’m playing in co-op with Illestrader, I am usually capturing our game sessions. These last a few hours at a time so obviously I won’t post all of it. But maybe small clips here and there. I haven’t yet decided way to do this yet though. Should I use Youtube as a storage space and have a dedicated channel there? or here and on Facebook?
The second thing is to discuss Achievements a little more. Or at least the ones I track. I’m sort of taking part in a self imposed race to 200,000 Gamerscore. Not a huge number by any means when you look at some professional gamers/hunters, but a personal pride and I am the leader among my local group of friends and followers. I’m at 179K right now and I hope to reach 200K by the time Extra-Life rolls around in November. I’m trying to line those up, to the day. And land exactly on 200K.
So I might start a weekly post about the race, and tracking specific hard-to-get achievements, or Rare achievements, now that Xbox has the Achievement overlay.
Anyways, here are some gameplay captures for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon® Wildlands:
Scoping the views
It’s not what you drive, its how you drive it.
Parking Like A Pro
Assassin’s Creed Future Soldier
Like Miami Vice
-iRogan
I won’t be doing a full review for Homefront, as I’ve been recording my thoughts as I progress through the game. You can find the previous entries here:
Homefront The Revolution First Impressions
Homefront – The Revolution: Further Impressions
This will be my final piece though. Final Thoughts, as it were.
This title has been such a divisive experience for me. On one side, as a sequel to Homefront, which had set the bar high, I was excited for the prospect of more story to dive into. However, with The Revolution, the game is so different, it would be hard to argue that they are related.
The story still tells of a resistance group fighting against the Korean invasion. It’s still a first-person shooter, but the rest has changed. It’s not a linear game, but a segregated open-world area. The city has been split into 6 different zones, and the only way to transfer to each zone is through the resistance’s underground tunnels. They’ve added bases and outposts that need to be captured to advance, a-la the Far Cry series.
Capturing the bases and radio towers differs quite a bit as you progress through the game, and there’s not a lot of instruction in how to advance in certain parts. The game focuses a lot on exploration, and traversal of the buildings, clambering up vehicles or platforms, out windows and along exterior vents. In some instances, doors or platforms require power, which comes from a generator. The generator requires a motorcycle to rev the engine. However, to get the motorcycle to that area, you’ll have to jump it off a ramp, or drive it up a series of stairs in the adjacent building, then weave it along the catwalk or makeshift platforms that connect the two buildings. All the while, this farce is taking place in the middle of a enemy populated area. Try avoiding the scouting groups or drone fly-by.
That’s just one example. Later on, some doors require the hack tool to open, or worse yet, a stronghold will have a little ramp hidden outside of plain view, that will allow your Remote RC-Bomb to drive in, and blow open the door. That’s hoping you’ve even unlocked the RC Explosive perk. Which happens to be the final Explosive upgrade. And this Stronghold was only in the 3rd area of the game. Try explaining that to my past-self, who scoured the building for an hour trying to look for a way in.
Even after the very large patch that came out a few months back, the game is still buggy. From time to time, you’ll see objects or weapon caches just floating in the air. The initial game loading, like, when you start the game, and press “Continue from last checkpoint”. Yeah, this load screen actually wears through its own loading music before the game starts. Luckily the auto-save stalls at checkpoints are all but gone. The frame rate tanks to about 3 fps for a couple seconds, but that’s forgivable compared to what it used to play like.
I’m finally nearing the end of the campaign, and I can’t say it’s been fun. I can’t recommend it to anyone. It has its good moments, and it does tell a dire tale, one of despair and loss, of resistance against unbeatable odds – which is its only saving grace. But I shouldn’t come up against so much resistance to enjoy the game itself.
-iRogan
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Rainbow Studios
Platform: Xbox One Backwards Compatibility
Availability: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Released probably eons ago (actually 2009) by Rainbow Studios and THQ, MX vs ATV Reflex is the 3rd game in the MX vs ATV series.
The game has been made backwards compatible on the Xbox 360 and was recently made the Xbox Live Games With Gold free game. So I picked it up, and have been playing it a lot. A surprisingly amount actually, considering I have Forza Horizons 3 available, and I’d rather play this.
The game features Motocross Bikes, ATVs, Buggies, and Super Trucks, and you race out in the wilderness, over dirt, mud, water, and snow, or in an arena with jumps and obstacles. Throughout the campaign there are a few different modes. Waypoint, Nationals, Supercross, Freestyle, Omnicross, and then the Chmpionship races. Each series supports different classes of vehicles, whether they be, MX Bokes, ATVs, Buggies, or Super Trucks. The Omnicross mode which features all four types of vehicles, in my opinion, has got to be the most dangerous of all sports conceived – from the Bike’s perspective. You’re sharing the path with ATVs, Buggies, and Super Trucks. I think it would almost be impossible not to get killed. The trucks, in these latter modes seems to have a clear advantage over the smaller vehicles. They’re more stable, faster, and larger.
Each mode has a set of races that make up a series, and there are 3 series for each mode. They start easy, only 3 races, and then 5, and then 8. Each series more difficult, and longer, with the championship series having the longest races, and the most laps.
There are also bonus races at the end of each mode’s series. These are either elimination style, or a solo time based checkpoint race, or races where you start as the person in last place, and try to win. The MX bikes also have a free style mode in an arena, or open area, with jumps and ramps, where you get scored on your tricks.
The big change this year is the handling mechanics. The left thumbstick will control your bike or vehicle, and the right stick controls the player’s body and balance. You can lean your body into the turns or jumps to get more momentum, or to right yourself if you lose balance. The right stick also allows you to pull off tricks while flying through the air.
From a course perspective, one of the notable key additions to the series is the real-time deforming ground. As more vehicles race around a track or path, the ground and mud will show the tire tracks, and the ruts will get deeper and more torn up, as the race continues. This can throw off the player’s balance when landing or cornering.
The main issue I have with the title is the difficulty curve – specifically with the bikes. On Rookie or Moderate, the game is quite easy, and at times I found myself finishing a race 30-50 seconds ahead of the 2nd place racer. This is when I can get out ahead of the pack. If you get stuck behind, it can get very difficult to gain any placement, as the tracks and corners can be quite tight, and it is easy to knock into another racer, and fall off your bike. After a couple bails you’ll be at the back of the pack, and it will be difficult to fight your way through, to complete the race with a solid placement. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd advance, and only the championship series have multiple point rounds. This is especially notable in races where ATV’s and Buggies are racing beside you. They have no care for your well-being and will side-swipe you or knock you off the course as if you’re not there.
The game is easy on the achievements, and will tie up a lot of your time to complete all the races. As you get later in the series and championship races, they take about 10-15 minutes each to complete. The game is, however, surprisingly a lot of fun, and it feels really good when you can hit the jumps and land solidly on the other side, maintaining your rhythm and momentum. For the series that allow them, I would suggest you use the super trucks, instead of attempting the MX Bike or ATV, as you’ll be less frustrated in the end trying to compete against them.
One downside is that the game is old now, so the Xbox Live functionality has been disabled. Possibly one of the victims of THQ going bankrupts a few years ago.
Notable Achievements:
Coming on Strong (Lap an opponent in a race) – 15GLong Jumper (Land a jump of 300 feet or greater) – 15G
-iRogan
Drawtober is right around the corner. The concept of Drawtober is for the whole month of October, is to try and draw something new everyday. Some people like to use different mediums, or the same medium for each day. Like ink, and they’ll call it Inktober.
Drawtober is a celebration of art for the full month, and is recognized in a lot of the artistic communities. I’ve taken part in the past couple of years, and quite a lot of the art in my gallery was actually done during the month.
I’ll obviously be participating again, and trying to go for a full 31 days (which I’ve yet to do) my theme this year will be Girls. Comics, Video Game, Movie. All types. Last year was video game characters. Last year I recorded a lot of my work and made time-lapse videos, so I’ll likely be doing that again.
My gameplay tends to suffer a bit during October as a result, so I probably won’t be spending a lot of time in anything new. I’ve been putting time into Recore, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, and The Division. I’ll be picking up Forza Horizons 3 this weekend as well. Gears of War 4 comes out in October as well, so we’ll see how things go. I may find time to catch up on some of my reviews while I break from gaming, if I find a break in the gaming.
After the month of October, we fall into November which has the annual Extra-Life campaign.The campaign is to help raise money for the Children’s Hospitals. It technically goes all year. But the big day is November 5th, 2016 where I’ll be playing and streaming for 24hrs straight. For the kids!
I’ve already registered for this year’s event, and you can find the link on the side bar. I’ll be creating a new page under Features as well. Last year I ended up raising over $600, and my goal this year is $1000. I’ll be getting a tattoo as well to celebrate.
-iRogan
Idly Playing the Waiting Game 