Battleborn is Still A Blast to Play

Battleborn came out just over a year ago. I was immediately drawn to the game due to it's super slick, cartoony, hero-shooter style. Sadly, it came out the same time as that bigger hero-shooter, Overwatch, and dumb marketing pit the two games against each other, even though they play completely different from each other. Overwatch, as we know, is an objective based shooter, similar to Team Fortress 2. Battleborn, is more of a MOBA shooter, as its main PVP type modes, Incursion and Meltdown focus on battling through lanes with teams of 5, and escorting minions to key points, all the while fighting other players, and killing the opposing teams minions.

I enjoy Battleborn, a lot.

The PVP of the game is fairly deep, due to the gear system that Gearbox implemented, which is similar to other MOBAs. In other MOBAs, there's usually assorted gear or items, or what have you, that can be purchased as the game goes on, that affects your characters stats. This allows you to build heroes a certain way and play to your play style. This is how it is in Battleborn as well. As you play the game, you can get gear, which you can set up for your games, to be purchased and used in game. Things like, increasing reload speed, increasing healing or even reducing the cost to build things in game which can help your team out. I love this. I've been playing around with different builds on different characters, and load outs for one are different than setups for others.

The addition of an actually pretty cool main story, with 8 PVE missions helps a ton. Plus, the added DLC Ops missions have added even more lore and story to the game, although the Oscar Mike Ops is easily the weakest of the bunch. Even after replaying missions, i'm still picking up on things that I missed before, and it makes me want to delve further into the lore of the game. It honestly is a very cool world that has been created, and hopefully we see more of it in the future.

That being said, Battleborn definitely deserves more love.

Gearbox has at least started a free trial, and basically made the PVP free-to-play for all on PS4, Xbox One and PC. You can download it, jump in, and while having access to only 6 characters a week for free, you can pay to unlock others, or unlock private matches and such. If you like the game, then you can buy it and have access to all the PVE levels and get into Ops stuff as well. These are definitely the best way to go to get gear, which helps you out a ton in PVP.

It's nice to see that Gearbox keeps supporting the game, and that the community, while small, keeps working to keep the game alive as well. It's a fantastic shooter, that has a lot more depth than many other shooters that i've played. If anyone wants to play sometime let me know, as i'll be continuing to work on trophies and lore challenges for players. Seriously, this game deserves more love.

A Recap

Wow. I honestly can't believe how long it's been since I wrote on this little blog. It's not that I haven't been gaming much, I definitely still do, mostly it's just I have been writing for other sites and such. That being said, I should contribute to this a little bit more so I can write about, well whatever I feel like writing about.

Since it's been quite some time, I suppose I should say that since last writing the Wii U officially ended production, and the Switch has come out. We still play our Wii U however, and there are still plenty of great games left that I have not played. As for the Switch, well it's a fantastic little machine, and I love that you can play games at home and then bring the console on the go with you. My son definitely enjoys being able to play Mario Kart and Blaster Master on the go, and playing with the joy cons detached and the screen set up on a table, well it's great for long ferry rides. The newest Nintendo fighter, ARMS, is out today, so we will be getting our copy later.

As for PS4 gaming, still lots of games to play, though I mostly play Paragon or Battleborn as of late. I just enjoy the MOBA elements added to the action/shooter genres I guess. I've definitely played a ton of Destiny, and am looking forward to playing some Destiny 2 with my brothers and buddies once it drops in September. Also, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, both amazing games, and one of the two will most likely be game of the year.

Anyways, that's a recap, i'll try and write a bit more, more often and let everyone know what I am gaming. Cheers all!

Gearing up for the End of the Year Releases

September has come and gone and with it there were some pretty significant releases. Bungie released Destiny: the Taken King which essentially gave the game an overhaul and made a ton of great changes, and added an all new raid, new strikes, new PVP maps and new subclasses. Now that it's October there are even more AAA releases on their way and some that are pretty interesting.

The Uncharted Collection is coming out right away, and based on some hands on time with the demo it looks like they've really given the games just the right amount of polish. It seems like they will be quality games to dig into and prep for Uncharted 4 with, however I know I will hold off for a little while on the collection. Speaking of big franchises, both the new Assassin's Creed and Halo 5 are coming out this month. Honestly, I've heard a few people talking about Halo 5 and how excited they are but for the most part it seems like there is not a lot of fanfare for the release, and even less for the new Assassin's Creed.

Probably the release I am most excited for is Star Wars Battlefront. The beta launches in a few days and I'm excited to get some time in with the game, to see how it plays and looks, although so far it looks pretty phenomenal. Star Wars hype is building and I'm pretty sure that this will pay off for EA. I personally love the Battlefront games and am excited to have the series back.

What about Nintendo though? Well they have quite a few 3DS games on the way. Recently Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer came out, which isn't my cup of tea, decorating homes only, but i'm sure there is a market for it. Sadly the new Star Fox has been pushed back into the new year, to January, but i'm going to assume that it may get pushed back further. So for Christmas that leaves the Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival Party game, and Mario Tennis, which don't really seem like system sellers, but i'm sure that Nintendo will push Mario Maker for Christmas. The game i'm most excited about is Xenoblade Chronicles X, which is out in December. Ready to put a solid 100 hours into exploring that title.

That's what i'm looking forward to, what about you all?

How was Splatoon's first Splatfest?

This past weekend Nintendo's Splatoon had it's first community event, titled Splatfest. For this one day event you were to choose a side, either Cats or Dogs (it will change each time they run Splatfest) and you will be matched up with players of the same chosen side and face off against the other team. For 24 hours the focus was on who was better, Cats or Dogs, and not so surprisingly Dogs came out on top.

How the event worked was instead of the usual modes that you would play, all were replaced with Splatfest, and unlike the usual 2 map, 4 hour rotation, these 3 maps stayed the entire day. I heard some people were a little tired of playing the same 3 maps for the whole day, but there were some other little changes that seemed to make it less painful for most. Most importantly you had the option of staying together with the team that you were matched with. If you had a stinker of a team, then you'd just get matched up with others if you liked following the games. However, if you and your teammates really clicked you could stick with them. No idea why it isn't like this in the regular modes, but i'm sure down the road that could change.

It also had a little ranking system similar to what Destiny uses in Iron Banner, where you got xp at the end of a match, whether you win or lose, and you rank up, from being a fanboy or fangirl to king or queen. As well though, you are awarded super sea snails which you can use to upgrade gear or reroll abilities on gear owned. The ranking and snails get players to keep on playing, and striving for the best gear and title. Also what should be noted is that the higher your rank, the more snails you will be awarded, so it's best to keep playing, rank up, and get even more snails.

The event seemed to go off rather smoothly, though I expected either of the last couple maps to finally be unlocked in this Splatfest; i'm sure however they'll pop up soon enough if not for the next one. Sadly I was only able to get a few games in, but they were very intense, fun, and different enough that it made the daylong event seem like something to get excited about when they announce the next one.

All in all, Splatoon continues to be one of the games that has lived up to what I had hoped it would be and something that I definitely need to spend a bit more time on. If you have a Wii U and don't have this game, well, rectify the situation.

My Top 3 Most Wanted Games

So now that E3 has come and gone, and we are excited once again about what is coming out in the near future, I just wanted to touch on what games I am most excited about. There are more than a couple that I can't wait for but I thought I would quickly recap the ones I am most excited for.

3) Horizon - PS4

Guerrilla Games is best known for their work on the Killzone franchise but they are finally breaking out of that bubble and working on a brand new IP and it looks stellar. Horizon is a post-post apocalyptic action RPG and from what i've seen and read so far, it should be pretty amazing. Graphically the game looks insane already, and it follows the main character as she journeys across the landscape taking on giant robot dinosaurs (that's basically what they are). It looks like it mixes things like the Witcher with Monster Hunter, and you can get pieces from the robots you take down and use them to craft new gear and such, like a MH game. Definitely can't wait for this to come out.

2) Last Guardian - PS4

This game originally was announced almost a decade ago, originally for the PS3, and it seemed to die, but thankfully Sony has brought it back. It is from what used to be known as Team Ico, a small team, and it's about a boy and his umm, bird cat monster thing, as you traverse desolate castles and build a bond between the two. You should just watch the video and then you'll know what i'm talking about. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are two of my all time favourite games so I am very happy to see that this isn't dead.

1) Fire Emblem Fates - 3DS

I love the Fire Emblem series. I love strategy RPGs and this series has been at the top of my list for about a decade now, and thankfully since Fire Emblem Awakening did so good we are getting a new one. Apparently there are two versions that you can get, a White one and a Black one, with the White version being the traditional one starring characters like Marth and Lucina and so forth, and is a bit more straightforward. The other version, Black, is apparently a bit more of a challenge. Thing is you buy one of them, and if you want the second one you pay an extra $20 to unlock it. I am very excited for this game, even if I don't like how they're handling the versions. However, there is so much content to the game and things like online vs modes, so we will definitely get a solid bang for the buck. This is out in the spring and it will definitely give me something to do when i'm gaming on the go.

What is going on with Nintendo?

So I haven't talked about the Nintendo E3 press conference, or digital event, as it's been a couple crazy weeks since then, but thought I would share some thoughts on what's gone on.

Mostly, I was pretty disappointed.

If you read this blog at all then you'd know that I am a big Nintendo fan. I'm a dad and just want nothing more than to play Nintendo games with my kids as they grow up, as I grew up on the games and love them and love the new games. I look forward to E3 time and seeing what is coming up from Nintendo, but sadly, there's not a lot really, especially for Wii U.

I know that they have stated that they don't like to show off games in the far off future like Sony or Microsoft do, and that's also probably because they're making games for the new system, the NX, and are more focused on that. But when you don't even show off anything to tease with the new Zelda game that they have insisted is still coming out next year, well I was pretty bummed.

The new Star Fox looks pretty underwhelming in my opinion. I'm sure it'll be fun, but when it comes out in November I'll be playing Battlefront more than likely. At least Xenoblade Chronicles X is out in December just after my birthday, which I am excited for. They did show off Yoshi's Wooly World, which looks cute, and for some reason is out all over the world except for North America. Guessing they wanted to stagger the release so they had some bigger titles for the fall, plus to give them time to make Yoshi amiibo for us? There was a new Animal Crossing party game teased but mostly looks to once again make use of amiibo, and gameplay wise looks like a less skilled version of Mario Party (so even more so based on chance than regular Mario Party). There was a lot more for 3DS, but the "Metroid" game looks pretty bland, and the new Zelda 3DS game is also not that interesting to me.

Not sure what I was really hoping for, but it just seemed that a number of the games were made to sell me amiibo, or were just some generic titles with IP slapped on it. I know that they are aware of the general disappointment that was in the air following the digital event, and have said they will do better to communicate better and create better experiences, and I believe them, but still after that event i'm still bummed about release calendar for Nintendo games for the rest of this year.

Maybe next year will be better.

On Destiny

I just went back and looked at what I had written about Destiny, after having played the Alpha and the Beta. It's been about ten months since the game came out, and while I have also picked up a number of games here and there, really the bulk of my time still goes into Destiny.

It has definitely not quite lived up to my original hype, and has fallen quite short as far as the story goes. There's hints of greatness still in the game, stories that are waiting to be told, but for whatever reason it just hasn't happened yet. The original lead writer on the game left a little bit before the game came out, and many have hypothesized that the original story that Bungie wanted to tell had some ambiguous greys in it and wasn't strictly a black and white affair with guardians of light versus the Darkness. The theories do make some sense and I can see having had that story scrapped and moving eventually towards something else happen, and the patch job was a bunch of grimoire cards that were hastily written up and tossed on the website.

Regardless, Destiny has been a great social experience and that is why I have put hundreds and hundreds of hours into the game. I've gotten to play and stay in touch with my brothers back in Alberta, my former coworkers, game with new coworkers, but mostly meet a ton of new friends in the clans I have been a part of, whether it be Dads of Destiny or my favourite Christian chums in Below the Cross. I have done countless raids, done my weeklies every week, even participated in a couple Iron Banner events even though I'm terrible at pvp, but I still have fun because of the people I play with.

Lately there's been a lot of controversy over the pricing of the upcoming expansion the Taken King, and especially the pricing of the legendary versions that have some exclusive items attached. I'm kind of interested in the class items but not for the money, and after the uproar and lashing back against Bungie I'm glad they have at least put the items up for sale, even if the price point is pretty steep, I think anyways. A lot of people are saying they are done with the game, have moved on, but I'm pretty sure i'll pick it up. Because it's about the social experience for me and I still have fun with the game. Just hoping that they start to fulfill on the game I had originally gotten excited for and add a great story, because the opportunity is there, and hopefully Taken King gets it back on track.