Fallout 4

    One of the most anticipated games of 2015 hit last month, and unless you've been hiding in an underground bunker(or can't read a title), you know it's Fallout 4. I've been playing it constantly ever since. Last night I got the platinum trophy for PS4 and I figured now is a good time to give it a full review. I haven't seen everything in the game, there's way to much content, but I have seen most of it. And there's a lot.

    For the tl:dr crowd lets do a quick overview. On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd rate this game a really high 4. It's an incredible game but there's to many flaws to give it a full 5. That said, I still consider this a must play title.

Graphical glitches are pretty common.

    Graphics are acceptable but not phenomenal. You'll definitely know what you're looking at, and in some locations it'll take your breath away. But there's some tearing in certain places and you'll frequently have xray vision, allowing you to see inside the player and npc's. Bethesda also seemed to be unable to decide if they wanted to go with ultra realistic or slightly cartoonish. Dogmeat is an incredible rendering of a german shepherd, but sometimes he looks out of place because the landscapes have a more illustrated look to them. That's just one example of what I mean. Both the landscape and Dogmeat are really well done in their respective styles, they just bump up against each other. Which brings me to my next point..
    Bethesda went with an interesting game philosophy for Fallout 4. It's a jack of all trades, but a master of none. It's the maintenance guy who knows how to do everything but isn't a pro at anything, of gaming. You can see this everywhere in the game. It's first person enough to be a shooter but it's clearly not a shooter. It's graphics are awesome but not groundbreaking. There's tons of great content but very little really blows you away. It's a fun city builder but it's tediously implemented. And so on and so on. There's no one element that makes Fallout 4 the incredible experience that it is, but when you add them all up, it's a knockout.
    The story line is pure Fallout. Guy(or Girl, sorta) leaves vault, goes on a quest, does cool stuff in the wasteland, saves the day. Nothing groundbreaking there, but it's always worked for the series and I'm not complaining. It's also almost completely unnecessary. You could ignore the story line and still have a blast playing this game. There are some pretty great twists that I wasn't expecting but I'm not about to spoil it for you.

This is just the northwest portion of the map. The game is huge.

    The world is huge. There are places to go and explore/quest everywhere. They really did a great job fleshing out the world and making it feel alive. Traders walk the ruined highways, beasts roam the countryside, ferals hide in every shattered train car. You'll encounter gorgeous sunny days and miserable radiation storms. Distant explosions and gunfire will remind you that you're not alone in this hellscape. The only problem with this world is that I don't have a car. Hell, even a horse would have been nice in a pinch.
    The sound effects, voice overs, and music are outstanding. Bethesda really nailed it. The radio station music selections are fallout through and through. The original score for the game is breathtaking, it's the kind of song that was waiting to be created. The voice overs are much better than any other Bethesda title I've ever played. Occasionally there's a hiccup but in general they sound more natural. The sound effects kick ass, some guns buzz, some blam, some pop, they all sound unique and match what you expect the weapon to sound like. There were a few times when a sound effect loop would get stuck however. For example, I gave a companion the minigun and after an intense fire fight the noise the gun made got stuck. Really annoying.
    Content wise, the game again delivers but nothing truly mind blowing. You've got the rpg element going strong and VATS targeting really helps remove the first person shooter feel. Or ignore VATS and it's a crazy intense shooter. Hacking and lockpicking mini games are fun and add variety. There's a very minecrafty city building element to get lost in forever. There's crafting and looting. There's some challenging puzzles. A little bit of everything, and then there's the radiant quest system. It works well and always gives you something to do but it definitely feels to mechanical. While doing the radiant quests I was constantly reminded of the Elder Scrolls. Not a bad thing, but something I think they need to work on. The radiant quest system needs more variety and it needs to be molded more for Fallout.
    One of my biggest complaints about this game, is the lack of choice making and real consequences. One of the greatest things about the Fallout universe is that you have an effect on things. With Fallout 4 that seems to have disappeared. Yes you have dialog choices, but the game does everything it can to make sure that your choices line up with the story line Bethesda created. Even when you're a total jerk, it rarely messes things up. The only real difference is the dialog along the way.

    Wrapping up here, I would highly recommend this game. It pulls you in and makes you forget everything else. I still haven't played the Bloodborne dlc I purchased. Fallout 4 is buggy, and it lacks polish, but more importantly, it's incredibly fun. And fun is why we play these games. You gotta play this game!

Bloodborne

"And so the Hunt begins again."

  The hunt began last week, and ever since then it has consumed me. All I think about is Bloodborne. I knew this game was gonna be good when I saw the previews last year. But it's nothing like I thought it would be. I expected a fun, dark, button mashing, action rpg, like Diablo. What I got was a reminder of how things used to be and just how difficult video games can be.
  I've been gaming since the early 80's and things have changed drastically since those days. Games are still tons of fun but they've gotten easy as time marches on. Checkpoints, ingame clues, selectable difficulty, are all huge these days. Not in this game. This game revels in frustration and anger. It feeds off your desire to throw the controller through the tv in absolute rage. It is fantastic.
  If you're like me, you never played a souls game. They are apparently notorious for their difficulty level. I had no idea this was the case, so I fired up the game, created my character, watched a very short cut scene, went into the next room, and died. At first I was annoyed. Then I realized that I was supposed to die here. Ok, no big deal. Two minutes later I died, again. This pattern repeated itself for two days. Yes you read that right, two days of getting my ass completely handed to me. And yet, I couldn't stop playing. Every time I died I was just a little further in the game than the previous death. Just enough progress to keep me going. The story is awesome but it's not in your face about it. Again, they give you just enough to keep you going.
  Finally, after two days, I defeated the first boss. The feeling of accomplishment and pride in finally progressing was incredible. I almost stood up and did a little dance. But that's really the part no one seems to mention. Yes the game is hard. Really hard, Mind numbingly hard. But because of the difficulty you really feel like you've done something awesome. Contrast that with a game like GTA V and you'll know what I mean. GTA is a great game, one of my personal favorites in fact, but it's not even remotely difficult. When you finish the story line it feels more like you watched a movie than played a game. Bloodborne is the complete opposite of that. Every victory in the game feels like you actually achieved something. You fought through adversity and triumphed!

 
  But Bloodborne isn't just a one trick pony. In addition to the difficulty, the game is also gorgeous. The setting and scenery are some of the best I've ever seen. It does a great job capturing the classic feel of the victorian gothic motif. The levels are huge and a ton of fun to explore. I'm still going back to previous levels and making sure I didn't miss anything. The story line is interesting but it's kinda sparse. You get bits and pieces through dialog, a few cut scenes, and scenery, but it doesn't hand feed you the plot. This works in Bloodborne's favor though because it adds to the mystery of the locations and people in the game. I haven't beaten it yet, so I'm sure more will come to light.
  The game does have a few downsides, nothing in this world is perfect. The biggest problem in the game are the load times. Every time you die, or go to your safe area, you will be sitting there waiting and staring at the Bloodborne logo screen. It's at least 30 seconds long each time and it never changes. Always the same screen. They really should have used this time to showcase some art, offer tips, etc. Load times are being worked on for the next patch but until then, it sucks. Another problem I have with the game is a bit nit picky. When you kill someone, if they've started saying something, they finish saying it even though they're dead. It's silly, but it pulls you out of the zone when it happens. Another issue is the camera. Frequently during big fights something will be blocking my view, My head, a tree branch, a giant mutated limb, that sorta thing. It could have been done better.
  The only games I can compare Bloodborne to are both pretty old. It's got the horror thing going strong, and it can scare the hell out of you, just like the original Resident Evil on the first Playstation. Staying in that time space, it's incredibly difficult but rewarding, like Kings Field. You will cheer every time you reach a checkpoint. And as weird as it seems, it also reminds me of Dwarf Fortress. The games are not even remotely similar but the motto of Dwarf Fortress players has always been, "Losing is fun!", and in Bloodborne it really helps to keep that in mind.
  Overall, I love this game. It's already become a classic to me. I'll probably be playing this game for a long time. I would absolutely recommend people buy it. Just be prepared and be patient. You will die, over and over, but you will get better.

"Long ago, Old Yharnam was overrun by the Plague of Beasts and left to rot in decay and now the only voices heard there are the howls of Beasts."