Over the Easter brake I went down to Florida to visit my grandparents and during that three and a half day trip I had one very crappy laptop to play games on. In my head I figured that this was a perfect opportunity to play some random steam games that I still needed to play. I picked up this game randomly on the first night and finished it the night before my flight home. To put it simply the game is really great and surprisingly short (which i didn't mind). In Momodora you are a priestess that is trying to dispel a curse that has befallen your land. with your trusty bow and leaf you go out to break the curse. One of the things I adore about this game is the main character's design and more specifically your weapons you see like I said earlier you do have a bow and arrow but for close range encounters you use a leaf like it was a blade, and there are a lot of subtle unique concepts like this in Momodora way too much to cover. The game is a 2D metroidvainia which is pretty short and sweet, so if you love games like Hollow Knight, or Metroid I strongly suggest you check out this game, it's on steam for only ten dollars.
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Where do I even begin. Minecraft is one of those games that is a permanent staple of my childhood so there is no way I can traditionally review this game, all I can do is relive fond memories of the game. Speaking of which the only reason I’m reviewing Minecraft in the first place is because I just spent a large majority of the last MLK weekend playing the game with some friends. Which has reminded me why it is one of my favorite games and the best game to play with friends. For me that's the heart of why this game is so great for me. Its building a world for myself with my friends all on our own. There is a genuine satisfaction I get from working as a team to build a place that I can call my own and then thrive with my friends all laughing and building together. It's a really human experience that I can easily lose hours too. You can feel yourself progressing and when your done with the game you can always come back to the game and reminisce about the good old days when you just started playing. It's almost like living a mini life experience. The main drawback to this is all of these experiences will become muted without friends to enjoy them with you. I have a challenge to those who think they can handle it, get some friends together and try playing the bedrock edition of the game (which is the one you can play on your phone and is way easier for a group of friends to pick up and play) then just play it for an hour or so. Who knows you just might enjoy it.
Destiny 2’s newest DLC Forsaken has dropped! With it comes loads of new content, story mission, loot, and game changes the game desperately needed. The new story focus’ on our favorite character Cayde 6 everything is fun and dandy for the first mission Cayde is making quips and cracking jokes, and then bam! He is dead. Bungie killed off one of their most beloved characters. Suddenly the rest of the story becomes a classic revenge story modeled after old cowboy stories, the only difference here being in this your a space wizard hunting down the guy that killed your good bud cayde. This has honestly been the best story since The Taken King. Another addition has been the new PVP/PVE mode gambit. This gamemode has two teams of 4 players facing off trying to kill enough enemies to summon a boss called a prime-evil. Once you kill the prime-evil you win a round. There's a catch though the other team can send over a player to harass your team while you gather motes to summon your prime-evil, this is where the PVP part comes in. This mode is crazy fun especially with some friends to play with. Paired with all that as well bungie has officially reworked the weapon system, I won't go into too much detail but basically it combines the weapon system from Destiny 2 with Destiny 1’s weapon system. This system is so flexible you can essentially run around with 3 shotguns, overall another good change. If you were skeptical about destiny 2 before now is definitely the time to pick it up all of the new additions to the game make the game worth playing again. Not to mention with the annual pass we will be getting more content as the months progress. I've linked the patch notes for forsaken below, as well as an actual breakdown of how the new weapon system works if your curious.
Forsaken Patch Notes https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/47197 Detailed explanation of the new weapons system https://kotaku.com/destiny-2-s-weapon-system-is-now-drastically-different-1828669413 The newest update for Destiny 2 has been released and I have been playing it for the better half of the last week to see everything there is to see in the new expansion. First impressions are good they brought back an old character from the lore of Destiny Ana Bray to guide u through the Hellas Basin to meet the old Warmind Rasputin, who is a hulking war-machine that has access to the entirety of humanities old golden age arsenal. Sorry if i'm sounding like a nerd I just really love the Destiny franchise that being said I also really love this DLC. With new guns armor and loot a whole new grind to unlock all this sweet new loot. As I've said I'm super biased when it comes to this franchise and i will say unless you've already bought the DLC via the season pass or really love the series like I do, it might not be worth it to buy Warmind. The DLC while fun may not be big enough to be worth buying, I’d say wait until the September update which is the update similar to the taken king update.
The news outlet Game Informer has recently made their annual top 300 games of all time list. They do a list like this whenever they pass 100 issues. Which is always a personal list from the Game Informer staff which is why this list is always somewhat controversial when it's released. Historically with previous top 100 games of all time they have kept many of their choices the same or near the same as their past lists. For instance Cod Modern Warfare is still fairly high on the list while newer relises that wowed audiences like Super Mario Odyssey are faring in the 250 range. While understandable that this is an opinionated list and while their entitled to their opinion, some of these games shouldn't really be on here like Peggle a casual puzzle game, or madden NFL 2004. I feel as the list makes sense for basically the majority of the games on this list do have a place on there I would just switch up the order a little bit.
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2018/03/15/here-are-the-game-informer-crews-personal-top-10-games-of-all-time.aspx Moon Hunters is a top down dungeon crawler with a twist. Specifically, the game is designed around testing one’s moral choices with none playable character (NPC) events that spawn randomly as you travel the world. For this reason it is described as a co-op personality test. I really love this concept and I love how the co-op fits into the gameplay. As you progress you will play as lots of different characters, each one with their own abilities and skills.
Overall, it is an immersive game that draws you in. It’s a good experience and it is a blast to play with some buddies but it definitely has room for improvement. Pros
Cons
Destiny is a game that I have played since its year one release and I’ve always been a big fan. It’s a game that I can come back to over and over and still really enjoy. When it was revealed that Destiny 2 would be available on PC, I just had to get my hands on a copy of it. Destiny 2 looks and feels the same as the original but there are a lot of smaller details that have been changed up. Overall, I enjoyed Destiny 2 but here are my thoughts on the positives and negatives about this sequel.
Most of the changes in Destiny 2 are minor and don't affect the gameplay. The overall presentation and UI is beautifully simple.The planets and moons in Destiny 2 feel a lot more open and expansive compared to the earlier version. The art direction and landscapes are impressive and create awe-inspiring, vast imagery.The real fun of this game starts at the end of the campaign which allows access to a new social space called the tower. This is very similar in layout to the first game’s tower but this time there are a slew more large Easter eggs to find. One of the most exciting features of this game is the addition of a raid that requires a coordinated, six member team to complete. Unfortunately with the launch of Destiny 2, there are some expected, as well as, unexpected problems. I can't help but notice the game is lacking in the customization department, specifically the armor did not look as good and as armor in Destiny 1. The main campaign which feels like a standard romp through a first person shooter is pretty mediocre. It feels predictable and standard for a FPS. It also doesn't do much in the way of mechanical innovation. One of the best parts of Destiny 2 is the raid, but the fact that it takes six team members with a high enough light level and decent coordination makes it frustrating to even attempt. Personally, I have not been able to complete the raid because I have not been able to get enough people with the PC version to cooperate. The game's final boss feels a bit too easy to kill and there are no real challenging mechanics. Overall, the game is kind of slow and standard. Destiny 2 has a lot of potential and the next round of DLC could really enhance this game. I would like to see the lore and history of the Destiny universe come to the forefront of the next DLC. There are some genuinely interesting stories to be told, but most are hidden behind large walls of text. I would also like to see the implementation of better armor and weaponry similar to what is found in Destiny 1. Adding the creativity of a lot of customization would the game feel more personal. I would also suggest a bit more in-depth mechanics for the player to work with during fights. Interesting fights that allow you to out-maneuver or out-strategize your opponent would make the game more compelling. Despite the drawbacks, I would still recommend this game if you have friends to play with and can hold out for future DCLs.
One of the best games that I played last year is Dark Souls III. I finished the game after the final DCL came out, around the end of my sophomore year and moved on to other games. Then, a friend of mine got me thinking about Dark Souls III again so I started another play through on the PC. Coming back to it, here is my take on what I appreciate about the game compared to all the hype.
When Dark Souls III was first released there was a huge amount of hype behind it's release and it was supposed to go back to its roots. Dark Souls II changed up a lot of the mechanics and the feel of the game compared to Dark Souls I. Dark Souls III was supposed to bring back some of the old places and mechanics. I heard a lot about new, interesting multiplayer features. There were definitely a lot of nods and glances back to Dark Souls I. Entire areas were referenced and specific character stories were retold. I specifically liked seeing armor from the original characters resurface. For me, a lot of the hype was worth it. Dark Souls III is faster paced than its predecessors. It has a huge and highly detailed world and some colossal new bosses. Some of the later bosses are memorable and challenging fights. Unfortunately, the game fell short in a few areas. It got rid of a lot of the innovative mechanics from Dark Souls II, and replaced it with the weapon art mechanic. I would have liked to see more references to Dark Souls II which has always been one of my personal favorites. The game feels a little over reliant on movement for a game that is themed around knights and armor. Role spamming is way too useful to avoid enemy attacks. To Fromsoftware's credit, enemy attack patterns have become shockingly more aggressive and psychotic. All in all, the game holds up and is still worth playing. Its challenging enemies and expansive landscapes make it blast to play. |
Miles RomanHi, I am a student at Durham School of the Arts, and this blog will be documenting my experiences with my Game Design class. Categories
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