Why the new Batman, is the Best Batman...

   I have played the Batman series since its beginning and believed it to be a complete masterpiece... until Arkham City. Let me explain why. When I played Batman: Arkham Asylum for the first time, I fell in love with the game and it's style. Fast paced, beat-down action that of course always ended with you pulverizing the bad guy. Not only this, but I loved that it also added in the elements of detective work that Batman actually performs not only in the original comics, but in the movies and tv shows that I grew up on. Then they released Arkham City. I loved the style still, but the only thing that I really enjoyed in the game was the continued story and new open-world style experience. It made it interesting, but the fact that the action and gameplay was EXACTLY the same as Asylum... made it a huge snooze fest for me...

(I'm Gonna go ahead and ignore Origins in this article because it was made by another company, so it isn't exactly fair to compare it to the Arkham series.)

   Now, Arkham Knight... I admit that I held off, didn't even preorder it like I had the last two games, because I just was so turned off of it by the same exact combat style of it's predecessors, however, I was convinced by some friends and a store employee who made a deal with me. So I picked it up on PS4 (because of the problems with the PC version that had blown up the internet, won't be discussing that here because shit happens and the only thing I'm upset with them about is that they should have delayed the release if they knew something wasn't quite right.) Not only is there a new fighting style because you get to play as several different characters throughout (won't mention names because I'm not here to spoil the game) but the combat was so much different because of how important the Batmobile is to each of the branches in the story, not just the main story line. It's absolutely fantastic how much control you have over it and how much focus there is on using it to complete your objectives and stay out of harms way while your rolling tank decimates enemy vehicles outside of your hiding place. The only problem that I have with this game is some of the controls are a little irritating. While gliding (SPOILER(?)*) there are some issues with the controls that makes it difficult to glide accurately through small obstacles where one slight movement in the wrong direction will cause a restart

Final Words though... This experience has left me overly satisfied and I'm glad I gave into my baser desires to be a superhero. I'm giving this one a 9.9/10

Thanks guys! Game On! ^_^










*Spoiler(?) There are gliding challenges X_X

Bethesda E3 Conference

   Many of you may already know that Bethesda, not too long ago announced they would be holding their first ever company specific conference at E3 this year. This comes as a happy surprise to many fans as they are the creators of a couple of the most popular RPG open world games ever made. The Elder Scrolls series, and the Fallout series that only became an open world RPG during of of the last game's release, Fallout 3. Originally the Fallout series was a tactical strategy game that took place during the same era. Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas became open world RPG's and became a cornerstone in the Bethesda's series lineup. Unfortunately, Fallout 3 was released in 2008, and Fallout: New Vegas was released in 2010, so it's been 5 years since the most recent release of the games. Fans have awaited eagerly the announcement of their next game in the series, supposedly Fallout 4. The assumption is that, because they are doing their own event, Bethesda has something big in store. Most likely, Fallout 4 will be announced, but I have my doubts that this will be the only thing announced. Something that seems very likely is that they will talk about more than just the Fallout announcement, and I assume it has to do with the Elder Scrolls series. It hasn't been as long since their last ES game was released, but it was still 2011, just a year after Fallout: New Vegas. My assumption is that another Elder Scrolls game will be announced. Now, this doesn't mean it will definitely be a new game to the series, but it is possible. What I'm putting my money on is that they are announcing a remastered edition for the new consoles, that comes with all the DLC and will hopefully not have any issues with "hitching" while moving between loaded areas. It's also possible they could talk about a special remastered Oblivion for the new consoles using the Skyrim, or possibly newer, engine with better graphics and possibly some extra dlc/mod content. To me personally, that would be incredible, but probably the least likely thing on my list. My expectation is a Fallout 4 announcement, and a remastered Skyrim. However, we can dream that a remastered Oblivion will be created, as well as a possible next Elder Scrolls being released in the series. Either way, fans will be happy with whatever they announce I'm sure!

Thanks again for reading! Game On! ^_^

Black Ops 3 Story Leak News!

   So there's been some pretty big controversy on the internet with alleged leaks by an apparent ex-employee of Treyarch that raised some concerns with an easter-eggish "True" ending to BO3 and the series. With alleged patches being released a short time before BO3 for BO1 and 2 that add in mini-missions and a secret trophy that allows the next stage to be opened up, allowing for the true ending to be unlocked in BO3. This is controversial because of the issue that some users might not own the original copies of the games on the previous console, or ever owned the console in the first place for users that have switched during this generation of consoles. Basically it's required that you have the PS3 version, with these specific trophies, to be able to unlock it on PS4. It sounds like a really cool idea, but implementing it is a problem for players that might not still have their copies, or even their consoles, considering GameStop has given a huge discount on PS4 systems by turning in old PS3 and Xbox360 consoles. Now, there was another leak from GameStop a few days ago near when the reveal trailer was shown. The leak was a picture, and was taken back down after only about 30 seconds. The quick takedown, unfortunately, was unexpected, so I wasn't able to get a screen-grab of it, but am working on it now. The picture depicted the "Prestige" edition of BO3 and showed a lot of the content being released with it. Well, from what was shown, there are missions being implemented, that are reportedly remastered for the new graphics abilities of the new consoles, from both BO1 and 2. My deduction, and probably yours by this far in the article, is that these particular remastered missions are being pulled, for the sake of these secret trophies being added in for those that can't go back to the old copies. For the sake of a different way of saying it, these missions being remastered, are the missions that include the secret missions.

Thanks again for reading! I'll try and dig up that screen grab asap! Game On! ^_^

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 - We Ran Out of Ideas

   Sorry about the late posting guys, this one took longer to write than I expected because of the content size. But here ya go, thanks for your patience! ^_^

   So I bet a lot of you have heard about and are possibly pretty excited about the announcement of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. For a lot of people, as the classic shooter that everyone knows of, this is an exciting announcement as the series is popular with the gaming industry and it's game mode "Zombies" that originally began as "Nazi Zombies" back in "World at War." Personally I'm pretty excited as I have a lot of nostalgia from playing the zombie mode with friends throughout high school and playing what we called "virgin gameplay" where none of us looked up the new zombies map would be and we played with all the surprises and recorded how long we would last. I think the most memorable moment that I've had was my first year in college with my roommate, which happened to be a "virgin gameplay" without being planned, and unfortunately we didn't record it we were so excited to play it. The map was "Buried" and it we made it to the mansion on our first try as we were just spending most of our points exploring the map. As my partner ran ahead into a hallway to the left, I turned right to check out a side room that was a dead end, I immediately turned around and hollered, loud enough to make our neighbor slam on the wall to quiet us down, as a ghost was in my face.
   Anyhow though, I wanna get into the real meat of this story. So the reason why this article is called, "We Ran Out of Ideas" is because watching through the trailer, I noticed some things that were shown that seemed pretty familiar. Watch it for yourself, then I'll go over what I noticed.

   Alright, so now that you've seen it, lets go over a few things that are very familiar ideas, that I think were stolen from other video games. Real quick though, because it was brief, a quick throwback to the "Ember" teaser for BO3 that was released not too long ago. In "Deus Ex: Human Revolution," there is a cutscene at the beginning of the game that shows a basketball player with a special contact lens that shows the exact trajectory and how he needs to throw the ball to make a perfect swish from the spot he is standing on the court, wherever he is. This scene in the middle of the "Ember" teaser, is almost a mirror image of this cutscene.

   But on to the meatier content of this latest trailer. So the first thing that I noticed in the trailer was the seemingly direct steal from the "Bioshock" series, the plasmid abilities (called Cyber Cores in BO3) "Insect Swarm..."

and "Incinerate..."

    I found this pretty funny, and it was a cool throwback when I first saw it. Unfortunately that wasn't the only thing that was very familiar. The next thing I saw was a throwback to a game released not too long ago even, I'm sure a lot of you have played and 100% of you have at least heard of it. The game "Destiny" developed by Bunjie. There is a helmet style in-game that is prevalent on the Warlock class, and given, it's not a direct copy and paste, but you can definitely see where they got their idea from...

   Now it is a little hard to tell from the angle of the second picture, but you can definitely see the similarities, and though I wasn't able to find a picture in the time that I spent writing this, a better picture, there is actually a very low-level helmet that is pretty much a starter item for the warlock class that bears an even greater resemblance to the one pictured in the BO3 picture. The next thing I saw was a reference to a pretty cool game that I actually didn't get to play a lot of, but was a pretty good game nonetheless. "Crysis," a pretty popular series with gamers due to it's futuristic and "Tom Clancy" style of game-play. Just saying, there's a lot of similarities that are here and the style reminded me of Crysis pretty closely.

   And another one, that most people kinda pulled more easily than the rest because of how recent it is and the popularity it had as the game took off, Titanfall. Plain and simple, they jacked wall-running, yes, but they did refine it a little better to add into combat a little more steadily and easier to handle shooting while wall-running from the game footage.

   And lastly, a game pretty near and dear to my heart. I've been playing a long time and have made some pretty good friends and spent a lot of time with other friends (IRL of course). "World of Warcraft," the Blizzard classic that will never end, and has changed the face of MMORPG's forever. The game recently had an expansion, I'm sure you heard about it. "Warlords of Draenor." But even before that, the expansion "Mists of Pandaria" showcased the object/machine/enemy, called an "Iron Star." A massive circular disk that is launched and rolls towards its target, typically exploding on impact, or just crushing it beneath its mass. Seems incredibly similar to the one shown in the BO trailer that is trying to create a futuristic "attack dogs" like scorestreak reward. The only difference perhaps is size, though Warcraft had several different sizes that the Iron Star came in. Anyhow, you can decide for yourself.

   So that's pretty much it from what I saw, but probably not all that was shown, please feel free to let me know of any others you saw in the video and I'll be sure to credit you and report on that one too. I haven't played every game ever made, so I can't catch everything.

   This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm not accusing Treyarch of doing this purposely. If anything this goes to show that ideas are few and far between these days and we're getting to the point that there isn't much "original" anymore from even the biggest developers. I personally can't wait to play this game and can't wait to see what Treyarch has in store for us this time!

Thanks again for reading! I appreciate the support now more than ever! Game On!

Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare

   Like I said in my previous post, I've had this game for a while in my PS4 gaming library. Since I've gotten I've had a lot of fun blasting zombies and plants alike. It's a very similar concept to Team Fortress 2, except there are less styles of matches, in comparison, mostly involving either a base defense style, or a straight up team deathmatch style games. So less kinds of game modes than Team Fortress, but honestly has a much more interesting style of match in these game modes. With the ability to change your costume of your "class" for a personalized or custom look while you're popping zombies or plants, as well as being able to change your character entirely to one of their special characters, changing your abilities and firing styles all together, it makes for a very entertaining game. Something that really was fun, kinda a mix between Tower Defense and the Team Fortress shooter style, was Garden Defense. You build a garden in one of several predetermined spots on common multiplayer maps and then around this "Garden," little pots pop up around the garden, usually on corners and they are used to grow little plants that you earn by buying "sticker packs" with in-game money or in-game transactions with real money. The game is very entertaining as cheap as it came, and if the $5 I spent in the HumbleBundle was just for this game, I'd still have bought it as this game will leave you laughing more often than angry when a little red chili pepper from a regular pea shooter plant blows your zombie brains across the plaza you're protecting.
   My next article will be covering the new Call of Duty: Black Ops III announcements, found some very interesting familiarity of the new things being added, check back in tomorrow!
   Game On!

Humble Bundle - Through April 28th, 2015 - EA

   So the newest Humble Bundle is sponsored by EA and their Origin game client. The newest bundle comes with some great newer games and some great oldies that are classic fun. For only the price of about $5.00, you get these all these games:

• Peggle
• Bejeweled 3
• SimCity 2000
• Wing Commander 3: Heart of the Tiger
• Wing Commander 4: The Price of Freedom
• Ultima XII: The Complete Edition
• Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault - War Chest
• Command & Conquer: Generals + Zero Hour exp
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Dragon Age II
• Dead Space 2
• Mass Effect 2
• Plants vs. Zombie: Garden Warfare

   It comes with a couple of smaller simpler games "Peggle" and "Bejeweled 3," a couple of great games for passing the time in between queues for LoL or CS:GO, they don't take up too much time and are simple fun. Then come the oldies, some great classics: "SIMCITY 2000, Wing Commanders 3 and 4, and Ultima 7." Not much to say about them, I recommend trying them for yourself ^_^. The next couple of games are Medal of Honor: The Allied Assault, the war chest no less, comes with the main game plus two expansions for it, which in those days, were real expansions, not a small little pack of like 4 multiplayer maps. *Cough Cough* Call of Duty... *Cough* When the expansions actually gave you more campaign missions and story to go off of. Anyhow... The next is also a fan favorite, I actually haven't gotten to play it yet but I'm hoping to get a little review on here before long because it's such a favorite. "Command and Conquer: Generals" has a few of my friends hooked so I can't way to give it a try. Some bigger name games that have a large following are the Dragon Age games, in this case, "Dragon Age: Origins" and "Dragon Age 2." These games originally advertised something that made it seem like it was a different kind of game, (Open World) and I didn't play very far before I got pissed off and sold it due to being upset that it was wrongfully advertised, however now that I own them for cheap and I know what to expect, hopefully I will be able to play through them without assuming open world, meant what the literal meaning is. Without that stigma, I've so far had a very good time playing through Origins and will probably write a review of sorts when I get well enough into the story. Next is Dead Space 2, a fantastic suspense filled adventure where you play as a man, Isaac, who is going to save the galaxy, as well as himself from his own demons tormenting him over the death of his girlfriend. Will definitely be getting to a review with that one. Mass Effect 2, unfortunately I haven't gotten the opportunity to play before, though I've heard so many good things about it, so soon I will definitely be picking up the controller for this one after all the positive feedback I've had. Finally, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare. I actually picked this one up for PS4 a while back and couldn't regret it. The comical and cartoony graphics really made this game for me, a long time fan f the PvZ tower defense series on mobile platforms and of course PC's. I'll definitely be hitting up a review for this one after a while as a much more, at least for me, fun version of Team Fortress.

Console Wars - An Absolute Waste of Time

   Short post today...

   I've recently had a lot of time to think about the console wars and how they are going. I would like to flip an argument that I've made in the past. The reality is that consoles: Wii U, Xbox One, and Playstation 4 are all awesome consoles and should be treated as such, they are a huge leap into the future and are very likely to continue to do very well. I've really grown tired of the war between the consoles on which one is best. Each system is great in it's own way and should be respected as equally as the next. Each one has something it's better at than the other, but they all do it very well.
   The main reason I write this article is to make the point that we need to stop arguing over which one is better, and just love our preferred console as much as we want, or even better yet, LOVE THEM ALL! I want everyone to stop wasting time arguing over chat's and forum posts and spend those few extra minutes playing on your console, and LOVE IT! Stop wasting time and enjoy that console.