Month: January 2019

Video Game Review – Super Smash Bros: Ultimate

Being a long time Nintendo fan it is no doubt I have played the hell out of the Newest Super Smash Brothers.  Super Smash Brothers has a super long lineage going back to the N64.  It is a fighting game that pits long time and lesser known Nintendo characters into one roster.  An impressive roster at that.  Smash Brothers has always been one of my favorite games on Nintendo and probably my most played game on my N64 besides Goldeneye.  Spent a lot of time playing Melee for GameCube  as well and owned the one for the Wii U. 

The game is a stylized fighter / brawler where every character has the exact same move sets controller wise, but the corresponding moves are drastically different for each character.  Some characters have similarities usually if they are from the same game franchise or the same story line.  Instead of life bars in SB, hits you land increase Damage% and as this rises you or characters you hit are thrown farther from the impact.  Eventually after enough Dmg% is accumulated even the smallest move will send a character flying off stage which knocks a point off their score or finishes the match.  Basically weaken your opponent enough to Smash them off the stage.  These basic mechanics make Smash Bros easy to pick up and learn but a challenge to master.  There is a lot of depth to this game, coupled with a HUGE roster of characters, there is a lot to chew on. 

Diving right in to the new Super Smash Brothers Ultimate for Nintendo Switch.

The list of characters starts off small and you unloce new characters just by playing the game. I think it took me several weeks to get all of them. There are 76 characters in the game at present, each with different powers and abiliteis. This may seem daunting but the game rewards you well jsut for playing and experimenting with the different modes and functionis. There are many different playstyles among the characters including fighter types, sword types, shooter types, and various other types based off of the games where the character comes from. I’ve put around 40 hours into the game and I still have far from seen everything.

I like this game because there is a littele something for everyone. There is definite action. The graphics are more cartoony and very colorful, so kids can enjoy it. The game has tons of customization and handicap settings so, again, kids can have a good time as well as more seasoned players. I’m not even particularly good at SB but it is always a riot to play with multiple people who know what they are doing, even if they don’t, matches are crazy and mostly enjoyable. You can easily make it easier if you are having trouble in most spots, except for the new Adventure mode.

I enjoy the new Adventure mode, speaking of. It adds the slightest story and strategy element to the game instead of it being just a brawler. After a cutscene you must travel a world map and fight enemies in battles with set parameters and hazards. Doing this gains you spirits which come in two forms. Main and support. These spirits are from any Nintendo property you could ever imagine even some super obscure ones that I have never seen before. Spirits serve as a cool and functional collection item that allow your character to become immune to various stage hazards, move types, or start you off with various weapons. They add very basic form of strategy that is easy to get the hang of. This is a one player portion of the game, but the spirits can be used on any other part of the game, and it lets you choose whether you want them on or off.

The rest is all here including the Classic mode which slowly gets more difficult if you do well, and ends with a battle with master hand or a franchise boss fight depending on which characters you are using. There are also some other great modes including the Century Smash where you fight a hoard of 100 bots, or challenging last man standing type battles. Normal Smash mode has a fully customizable set up and you can save your favorite match types so you don’t have to deal with the menus unless you want to tweak something about the match. You can change pretty much anything about the match including game rules, certain items, handicaps, CPU difficulty, and anything else you could imagine. Ultimate playability (I don’t think that’s a word..)!

There are tons of unlockable items in this game. Literally a thousand plus spirits and thousand plus different pieces of music in the soundtrack. Countless pieces of armor and costumes for your Mii character.. It’s truly impressive the amount of stuff they can fit on those tiny little Switch cartridges. There are literally 100 different stages or battle arenas!!! This game is simply massive.

There isn’t much bad to say about it honestly.

The game is a lot faster than I remember.. Sometimes the hardest part of the match is literally trying to keep track of your character. The stages move and swoosh around and are a potential hazard in themselves. I often find myself losing track of my character after a large explosion or other dazzling event, thus I die needlessly fairly often. You do get used to this but it was something I noticed. I may be getting old or it may have been a long time since I played a SSB game. Honestly this adds to the chaos of the game and mostly ends up being funny in large multiplayer matches. When playing solo it is much easier to see what your character is doing and what your moves do. It took me a lot of time playing solo before I got the hang of the larger more intense multiplayer matches.

The online mode kinda sucks. Or maybe I just suck at SSB because I rarely win and when the lag isn’t messing up my experience people tend to be try-hards or just spam the same bullshit moves over and over. Needless to say the servers aren’t very stable and I’m sure they will be updated eventually but I generally don’t play much online. It picks a random match and random team mates for you unless you are playing co-op with a friend. I probably just need more practice.

With all the games I played this past holiday season I’d say this one was one of the only two that felt worth it, Red Dead Redemption 2 Being the other. I have discussed the ongoing trend of developers selling shoddy and incomplete games. I’m happy to say this game felt worth my money.

I’d highly recommend this game to anyone who likes fighting or beat em ups. The action is intensely smooth and fast paced but the simple controls let pretty much anyone figure it out pretty quick. Definitely a no-brainer for anyone who loves Nintendo and owns a Switch.


Video Game Review – Assassins Creed: Odyssey

I generally like the Assassins Creed series but I’ll admit I got series fatigue after Black flag and never finished Unity and I never even purchased or played Syndicate.  I absolutely love what they did with Origins though and as result I thoroughly enjoyed the newest installment, Odyssey.  I got a Platinum trophy on the Playstation4, thus I fully explored the game and most of what it had to offer.  This game is absolutely massive and Gorgeous to behold.  I must say it is an impressive game even at its worse!  Never once can I say the game is very bad at all there were some minor things I found silly or repetitive but that is literally any video game.

Most importantly I thought the game was fun!  It’s fun and rewarding to explore, the action is fun, and they give you so many options on how to fight and engage the enemy that, as long as I kept changing up my perks and switching up my play style and weapons, the gameplay loop never really got boring even after 100+ hours.  To me that is a pretty good experience.  There was some repetitive stuff but to me it never felt super drab or grindy. 

I truly enjoyed the characters and time setting. I liked the Greek accents even if they were a little cheesy sometimes I thought it felt pretty genuine for the most part. Most every review I have seen or read praises Kassandra as the better and more lively of the two playable characters. I chose her because quite simply a female character adds so much to the dynamic and way I play the character. I personally like the “Bad Ass” female persona, I grew up watching Ripley fighting aliens with machine guns duct taped to flamethrowers. I wasn’t disappointed by Kassandra in the slightest. I read a review that says, “playing as her turns the game from a good one with a solid male lead character into an epic game where you are basically a mini Wonder Woman.” I would definitely agree and second this statement.

The characters felt pretty real and alive. She displayed emotions in a great range, she was funny, and several times I felt the dialogue was specifically tailored to her sex, which to me was refreshing. A friend of mine played through the game as Alexios so I got to hear some of the dialogue and the way people talk to him. There is definitely a difference in the way the NPCs address the main character depending on their sex. It added a nice touch of realism that helped to immerse me in the world that much more.

Some of the Dialogue is kinda cheesy and after spending so much time in the game you start to see the limitations of your choices and effects but The game is Massive and their are so many interesting tid-bits of lore and story, I rarely felt bored and logged over a hundred hours in the game. Better yet I have yet to see any added content so I know I will spend even more time in this gorgeous world. I like how the tale dipped into the legend of Leonidas and the 300 soldiers who fought against the Persian Empire. Some of that kinda gets lost in the story because it is so long, but I was happy with their depiction none-the-less.

The games graphics look very similar to AC Origins. Which I am not complaining about. Origins was a breathtaking game, and Odyssey is no different. I think Origins was a little bit more solid and fluid but Odyssey is larger by a fair degree. Altogether the small glitches and rough spots were easily overlooked next to the beauty and detail everywhere else in the game. I also appreciated the music. As I explored the gorgeous scenery between objectives beautiful female voices echo and twangy sting instruments play serene little riffs that took me to the rolling hills of the Mediterranean.

There were a couple of glaring little things that kinda made me chuckle or were kinda annoying but these ended up being kinda charming, such as the glitchyness of Skyrim. None of these things are game breaking but hard not to notice.

The NPCs dive directly into my horse when I am riding through populated areas. I feel like people stayed more out of the way of my horse in Origins.. but maybe it was just as bad. It’s not a terrible glitch it’s just funny when people are yelling at you to “watch where you are going” as they dive into your horse as it passes them. It happens a lot too.. not just every now and again. I think there is some small timing or spacial issue but I don’t know anything about the technical side of bugs or glitches..

I thought the inventory Menus are kinda clunky as well. I think there should be some kind of fast dismantle option or a way to highlight and sell all of your junk weapons and armor with one button press instead of Ka-chunking through every single piece of worthless armor you collect throughout the game, and you collect a lot, so I found this kinda annoying.

I felt like sneaking and being stealthy was easier than it has ever been. Especially once you power up some of your assassination perks, you can quite literally skip through some of the bases without ever alerting anyone. This is cool and all but I feel like the Enemy AI could have been a little bit better in the hearing and noticing disturbances department. Otherwise I liked how the game kinda levels up with you so when I went back to do missions that I had long passed they were still somewhat difficult and not just a waste of time. I felt like the pacing of the game was pretty good overall.

Lastly, I thought the story was a little bit Convoluted. I ultimately got everything and understood everything but there were some twists that were kinda random and some times in the game where I was like WTF? I feel like they should have gated a couple of the Cultists of Kosmos so that when I got to a certain place, I hadn’t already killed the leader and thus make all of the missions in that area pointless.. This game is so massive that it would be impossible to make it flow without a couple snags. It’s worth noting that most AC games are a little weird when they try to explain themselves.. so it wasn’t too hard to overlook the strangeness of some of the events or pacing issues.

All in all I feel that this is a strong game in the Assassins Creed franchise. I really enjoyed it. It was refreshing to have some RPG elements combined with the glorious action and stealth in the Assassins Creed style. Overall this is a great game for anyone who enjoys big open worlds and lots of exploration. The game was engaging throughout and I still have more to return too and I will. I played a lot of video games this past Holiday season and am just barely now getting to the reviews.

You may not like this game if you dislike long games with Massive and complex stories. There is lots to read and do and can get distracting from the main missions. There is also a degree of grindyness to this game that may turn off some gamers. I don’t mind a bit or repetitive grinding, as I said earlier they give you so many options that the game can only be boring if you play the same way for the whole time.

Definitely recommend Assassins Creed Odyssey.




My 2018 in review! Moving onward and upward! & Some goals and ideas!

I learned a lot in 2018 but I think the most important thing I learned, once again, was to NEVER READ THE COMMENTS. I’m partially joking but that is one of many things that I reminded myself of countless times over the past year. Don’t read the comments, say what you have to say, watch what you want to watch, and like what you want to like. Don’t let the dregs of the online population get you down or critique your favorite things to death. Remember to enjoy your time doing things because you enjoy it, not because someone tells you that they think you should or shouldn’t. Form your own opinions and think critically for yourself.

I had a bad habit of reading too far into things that I like or consume, whether it be media, food, or even certain industries. I realize I over critique a lot of things to the point that I don’t ever experience them for myself, more or less I only experience things through this lens of critical analysis.

I am hopefully stopping this in the coming year. Don’t get me wrong i like to read and do some research on things but concentrating on others reviews or comments about a certain thing can be damaging.. You gotta think someone is more likely to comment on something if something was wrong or if they were unsatisfied.. Unless presented with an option someone who is satisfied or content will PROBABLY NOT go out of their way to make a post or review saying “I like it, I’m satisfied”. The comment sections and review sections are usually more or less for trolls or people who have negative things to say. While it is good to review certain things so you don’t make shit purchases, it’s easy enough to look at the overall numbers of people who gave it a good rating VS people who gave it a bad one.

Bad time to be a gamer..

Since 2016 I have felt that as a solid video game player I have been getting more and more screwed over. Lately it has been a trend in all gaming industries to do micro-transactions. However they rely on these MTs (micro-transactions) to generate revenue so they can add more content and development to the games. There has been severe push back on the topic of MTs, gamers in general don’t care for them.

Now they do this Games as a service model that effectively releases partially finished games at full price and then updates them regularly and adds content to the entire player base instead of just charging extra for the guarantee of full content packs. They rely on a strong player base to be buying those MTs which are usually customization’s that have no real game value, they don’t effect statistics or characters actions at all they are purely cosmetic.. Most gamers can agree that this is pretty harmless and one doesn’t have to purchase them in order to enjoy the game in any sense. However the release of sub par and unfinished games is a sad conundrum that I don’t see getting better as game companies get greedier and the prices to produce games gets ever higher.

I would almost prefer if they were real with their customers and say look Games just cost 80 dollars anymore.. Sorry it’s the price of production and whatever else but now it feels like they are charging full price and not delivering even half of what would be considered a full video game, even 5 years ago.

I am a customer who likes to support the game developers and artists, but when I am repeatedly suckered into paying full if not extra price only to have to deal with bugs, glitches, and price drops less than a month after release.. Countless times it has happened where less than 40 days after I pay 80 dollars for a game I see it online for only 30 or 40 dollars. That is ridiculous. It’s like they are punishing the players who pay the most amount of money. Needless to say I finally learned my lesson. I won’t be buying any more games on launch and especially paying extra for pre-order crap. It’s simply not worth my money and the games end up not even being fun to play for another 6 months to a year after they are released by that time they are a fraction of the price, yet more enjoyable.. How does that work.

I love video games and I will always play them and enjoy them but I’m learning that this is considered normal in the industry now and it probably won’t change just get more effective over the years.. I’ve always said if they do away with the physical media I will probably not play as many video games anymore.. I don’t like the always on model and streaming games idea. Let me have my collections and share them with my friends if I want to.

Looking forward to 2019.

All in all 2018 was a great year. I did a ton of business and made a lot of great connections. I have some ideas and things that I want to do in 2019 and one of them is go back to school. I plan to attend CNM again this coming summer and start my degree in communications. I want to be a writer or game journalist of some kind. Even if it doesn’t have anything to do with video games I want to do some kind of writing either creative or professional. I will pursue business but I will do that in my own capacity with Unity Sound Co and other ventures.

I am also practicing and want to learn proficiency in the Spanish language. I think it’s important to be able to speak the languages of your neighboring countries, for both business and security. Being an interpreter is a well paying job that I would actually get some enjoyment out of and the communication degree as a whole will let me practice what i do for fun anyways; reading, writing, and creating.

As for Unity Sound Co, I like where I am at with it. I can increase business the more I go out and network, and a steady stream of people organically hit me up on the regular for small events and shows. I need to put my foot down with my pricing this year. I helped a lot of people out, even last minute sometimes, and never got compensated. Only I can ensure I get good business. I also need to keep better track of my accounting. That just makes it a lot easier when I go to file my taxes and do end of the year paperwork.

I want to do a couple of party in the park styled events and this time I would like to have some more vendors and artists. Maybe invite a little bit of color into the spectrum. I’m not looking to make a lot for that part of my shows, more to let the artists have an opportunity to make some money.

Overall I am looking forward to 2019.. I’m through pre-ordering games.. I am done reading comment sections and critiques.. I’m ridding myself of toxic politics.. I am going back to school and running my business well and making it as good as I can. I know nobody cares haha.. feel free to comment and tell me what you are up to in the coming year.

As always thank you for reading!