A Year In Review (2015)

Hey everyone! Been absent for a while (got to love the holidays am I right?), but needless to say, I'm back for a brief post regarding this year in gaming. I've gathered a collection of drafted blog posts I wanted to submit earlier this year, but was unable to do so due to time constraints.

E3 2015 Thoughts and Reactions
I started (and ended) my viewing session of E3's live coverage through IGN's app on the PlayStation 4. I was impressed with Bethesda's showcase and not only with the announcement of Fallout 4, but I was also impressed with the announcement of a sequel to Dishonored.

Overall, I'd give it an 8.5-9.0 out of 10.0 (somewhere in-between).




My Destiny: House of Wolves DLC Expansion Review -- (Release Date of HoW: May 19, 2015)

The game itself becomes extremely repetitive as players are forced to complete the same missions over and over again at varying difficulty levels in a rather futile attempt to gain better weaponry or armor. Yet, we don't bother asking "why?" or "to what end?". When players begin to question the elements of the plot, the whole game falls rather flat. For instance, Why does the moon have the same gravity as Earth? Shouldn't Guardians be falling slowly after leaping into the air to dodge oncoming fire?

Outside of the House of Wolves DLC, the voice acting lacks energy and charisma, in particular, that of Peter Dinklage, who voices your Ghost companion.

It's essentially the same as the Wii's Conduit 2 (I give that game a solid 7.0. It's better than the original, 6.5) in that it's a playable game, but with a forgettable storyline and while it may have stunning artistic visual rendering, it falls flat when it comes to providing proper immersion.

What Destiny needs right now:

1. New Ghost Shells. There aren't any new ones available to players.
2. Custom private lobbies where players can setup game modes and play without exp. gains and with level buffs enabled or disabled depending upon the host.
3. Trading option for armor and guns.
4. Possible racing mode for sparrows? They remind me of speeders from Star Wars so, it would be cool to race on those.

Final Verdict:

7.0/10.0 Par - C Rank Game




RTX 2015 Tragedy

In Hunt County, Texas on Friday August 7, 2015 at approximately 1:50 in the morning, three Virginia teenagers were killed and two were severely injured in a fiery crash on Interstate 30 on their way to RTX. RTX is an annual gaming and Internet convention created by Rooster Teeth Productions held in Austin, Texas, run by Gus Sorola and Barbara Dunkelman. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Trooper Kyle Bradford reported that the teens' SUV was struck head-on by a wrong-way driver . An 18-wheeler driving behind the accident could not stop in time and unfortunately, slammed into both the SUV and the wrong-way driver's car. Both vehicles caught fire.


Kyle Mathers, 19 (DECEASED)
Dale Neibaur, 19 (DECEASED)
Holly Novak, 18 (DECEASED)
Kevin DiCicco, 19
Hannah Galbraith, 18

This particular incident was quite an impact for me as I had been in Austin during that time for the very same event. My friend Matthew and I had traveled from Ohio to attend the festivities via car (20 hour drive one way...) so, while I was there, I happened to pick up a newspaper (something you should do whenever you travel) and I learned of the heartbreaking tragedy.

Works Cited

Wise, Scott. (2015, August 7). Police identify Virginia teenagers killed in fiery crash on Texas interstate. Retrieved August 14, 2015, from http://wtvr.com/2015/08/07/virginia-teens-killed-in-crash/

A memorial podcast was setup by the RoosterTeeth staff in order to honor and mourn the loss of the teens as they were making their way to the event.

http://roosterteeth.com/post/51169175

http://roosterteeth.com/episode/rt-podcast-season-1-kevin-diccio

Destiny, RTX 2015, and more!

Hello everyone! Last month I got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to partake in a roadtrip to RTX 2015 with a good friend of mine. (I'll have pictures below). It was an awesome trip and I got to attend the RWBY panel as well as play the demo for RWBY: Grimm Eclipse. It was my first time in Texas and I am saving up to hopefully attend the event next year (that's also why I didn't post anything for the month of August).

Pre-pre-pre-pre-alpha build of RWBY Grimm Eclipse.

Controls for the game thus far.

I'm the tall guy cosplaying as Neptune from RWBY.

Sneak Preview of Season 3 of RWBY!

In other news, Destiny: The Taken King has just been released (as of September 15, 2015) and I've traded in my "Vanilla" copy (the original disk) for the new & improved "Neapolitan" version. I'm calling it that because it comes with the first two expansions The Dark Below as well as the House of Wolves in addition to, the new Taken King content.

I had to pay a fee of $40.00 or so to upgrade (which was twice the price of the first two DLC expansions) and unfortunately, within about 3-5 hours of gameplay, I'm nearly finished with the added storyline. So, was it worth it?

Well, in some aspects my initial gripes about the game have been alleviated, albeit only slightly. Bungie has indeed been listening to fan feedback this last year and has worked hard to reinvent Destiny. The story is presented in a coherent manner with excellent narrative, as well as clever dialogue (particularly that from Nathan Fillion's character, Cayde-6). Some of the missions themselves are character specific and will not allow access for other players even if they are of the same subclass (i.e. the "Nightstalker" missions). Those specific missions are meant to be played solo.


However, the content can easily be beaten in one short session and that leaves little else to do outside of several side missions and patrols. While I did enjoy some of the new additions, such as utilizing the Ghost to scan items of interest, (Which is something that the Metroid Prime series has excelled at for years...), the opportunities to do so were few and far inbetween. The only time I felt like it was truly a significant feature was when I was looking for Cayde-6's ally in the field, Tevis (No, I haven't spoiled anything). You'll attempt to locate this hunter Guardian and use your Ghost to key in on his location. After which (spoiler warning) you'll unlock the Nightstalker subclass and be able to use the void bow.

Unfortunately, it's basically back to the repetitive grind until more content is released (like the Raid this Friday). After the dust has settled and people realize that there really isn't all that much new meaningful content, Destiny: The Taken King will become a monotonous epitome of sadness as we spend our time yet again farming for materials.

Overall, I welcome some of the changes, just not all of them. In particular, the new algorithm being used to determine attack values for weapons is alarmingly confusing. This is especially true when comparing one gun or piece of armor to another. I'm still puzzled as to why my green "uncommon" ghost shell has a base defense of 175 compared to my blue "rare" one which is at 170. It makes little to no sense that one would be better than the other, without at least some consideration for rarity.

On a scale of 1-10.0 with 10 being the utmost best expansion this could be, I'm giving this an 8.0/10.0 B. It's equivalent to the House of Wolves in terms of improvements (I particularly liked the voice acting of April Stewart as Petra Venj and the banter between her and Variks).


Positives:

• Lots of great cutscenes and quality dialogue

Negatives:

• It's incredibly short. You could literally beat the content in a single session, and then be able to return it for a refund.
• Rarity makes no cohesive sense when comparing weapon & armor values.