Mercury sits happily at the top of the destinations menu like it was there all along. Brother Vance welcomes Guardians with open arms to the Lighthouse (only reserved for the best of PvP in Destiny), waiting for Osiris’ return. Like everything else to follow though, Mercury quickly proves that it is a veiled guise for a rather bland play space. It’s small while giving of the illusion of unlimited potential. It only has one public event, and while covering much more ground than other public events, it’s still the only one (plus sparrows don’t work). At least the other destinations have multiples. The Infinite Forest is a clever trick, that has been pulled before, it’s just on a slightly larger scale, not confined to a space like the Prison of Elders from House of Wolves in Destiny 2 Pvp Guide. It’s doing the same thing though, just changing the facade.
There was no way a Persona game would slip past my radar. Shin Megami Tensei IV was easily my number one game last year, so it only seems fitting that another in the beloved franchise, while a spin-off, was among my top 10 in 2014. Persona Q is a fan’s dream, meshing both Persona 3 and Persona 4 into a traditional dungeon crawler format similar to that of Etrian Odyssey. While it’s not your traditional Persona format with fusing various monsters and dealing with social interactions outside of dungeons, it maintains all of the glamour and appeal. It definitely has its own set of issues, but there’s just too much to love about mashing the characters from the two games and building an intriguing storyline around them.
Having been mixed on Divinity games in the past, I was hesitant to jump into Larian Studios’ latest game. It took only ten minutes before I realized I shouldn’t have worried as Divinity: Original Sin is one of the most hardcore RPGs in a long while. This isn’t something that holds your hand; it’s up to your own memory and thoughts to determine the outcome of specific scenarios. You also have to really enjoy detailed menu systems and walls of numeric values for each character to appreciate what kind of RPG this is. Mix in a turned based combat system similar to that of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, with dice rolls and strategic placing, and Divinity: Original Sins is an RPG of the ages.
Whether you’re a grown adult or a child, who doesn’t love Pokémon? The release of the Gameboy Advance began arguably the best era for handheld games, and leading the march was Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. These twelve year old games brought us the third generation of Pokémon we love today, so it seemed only fit for Nintendo to remake the duo. With their new 3D engine, Nostalgia hits hard for those who grew up in the late 90s and early 00s, as Game Freak was able to recreate everything you’ve come to love, while at the same time adding on top of it. While it would still be great to see new Pokémon adventures, this is one of the few cases a remake was warranted. Now all we need a second remake of Red and Blue.
Just about everything you love about Destiny is returning. We’ve got a campaign with a series of story missions that tell a grand tale of courage and heroism. We have strikes. Of course, we’ve got a brand-new Raid, which I can say nothing about because it’s the pinnacle activity. We have different ways to explore the world. We’ve all been on Patrols, but now there are Lost Sectors to discover, public events with heroic activities, adventures given to us by MPCS. Finally, of course, there’s the Crucible for when we want to step away from the fight against the enemies.
Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls were easily two of my favorite games to have hit the last generation of consoles, so when From Software announced a “direct” sequel, my anticipation was palpable. Somehow, From Software is able to create some of the most grueling, most depressing worlds out there, while at the same time urges us to venture forth. While there are some hitbox issues that can add to the frustration, the bosses, environments and enemies are all well throughout, along with an incredibly intriguing hidden storyline that ties directly into the past game. It’s almost as if the developers deliberately set up scenarios to screw over players, but we took it and enjoy every minute of it.
Destiny starts off as you’re resurrected by a Ghost in the desolate ruins of Old Russia. Things aren’t looking great as there are Fallen roaming around and you need to make it to civilization. Finding a ship, you make your way the Last City where you meet a whole network of faces, including Ikora, Zavala, Cayde-6, and The Speaker, who now represents the Traveler. They instruct you to go back to Earth and search the Cosmodrone in which you find the Hive holding out underground in the abandoned subway system. Seeing as these beings usually reside on the Moon, you’re tasked to travel outside of the atmosphere and investigate.
The other side of the loot pool is the now titled “Illuminated Engrams” (previously Bright Engrams) which drop all sorts of cosmetic goodies and sometimes an exotic ship, sparrow or Ghost. Bungie is sticking to their guns with how these engrams function — aside from the debacle of XP gain — a minor complaint comes against it. With so many new cosmetics, mainly shaders, why can’t these items be locked like armor or weapons? Why can’t they be deleted in mass? Having to systemically break-down shaders one by one is tedious and a waste of time. No one wants to sit around and delete 65 bland shaders, “wooo, look how much fun I’m having.”
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