"Grand Theft Auto V" Next-Gen Review

     

     Grand Theft Auto V is Rockstar Game’s latest entry in the GTA series. This time around there are two HUGE additions. You can play as three different characters and while there was online multiplayer in GTA IV, it is nowhere near extensive as it is in GTA V. First, the characters are Franklin, Trevor, and Michael. Franklin lives where CJ from GTA San Andreas lived. He is essentially a gangster, with a lot of heart just trying to get out of “the life” and work his way up in the world. Trevor is a deranged, psychopathic, drug dealer/addict-redneck who will annihilate anyone who stands in his way. Michael is a retired bank robber under “witness protection.” He has a wife and family, though they NEVER seem to get along. He’s tired of the retired life and is anxious to get back into the robbery business.

     Once all have been played as for the first time by progressing through the story mode, each character can be switched to at a moment’s notice by holding down on the d-pad and selecting one using the analog stick. This is particularly useful during combat when a character reaches critical health and is pinned down. You can switch to another character and save that other character. Each character has his own story and each is intriguing. Trevor might be the most fun to play as because of his never-ending back and forth emotional state. He either wants to kill everybody around him, or he whines about how his parents were never there for him and that he could really use some company.

     While playing as three characters is an enormously cool twist to GTA V, let’s discuss the biggest addition; GTA Online. Once you launch GTA Online for the first time, it’s time to create your character. You can select what your parents looked like altering your appearance and change a few different body characteristics before jumping into online. Other traits of your player’s appearance can be customized by visiting businesses around Los Santos. The entire game map is available to the player online. When you first start, it will seem daunting because of how little you have. However, it’s easier than you think to work your way up through the ranks. I would recommend playing missions with friends and starting a crew to earn bigger cash rewards for completing missions. With just a bit of grinding, you’ll have a luxury apartment with a ten car garage and an inventory chock-full of weapons. Online runs quite well and lag is a rare occurrence. Missions are greatly varied ranging from skydiving and dirt bike races to stealing drugs and assassinating a target, etc. Teams can even compete in death matches. When playing online though, it’s best to run around Los Santos with a friend and if not, watch your back. Other unsavory players around Los Santos will try to kill you, and some are relentless. If you get sick of it or you just don’t want to fight back, a passive mode can be enabled, disabling other players from attacking you. These unsavory players are marked with a red circle that varies in brightness based on the player’s mental state. (Effected by people they've killed, etc.) When GTA V first launched on last-gen, Rockstar had promised heists for GTA Online. It's been a while, but they are finally coming to online early 2015.

     Another big addition to GTA V on next-gen is the option to switch to first person. First person is both a joy and a curse. It creates an incredibly immersive experience during gun fights and driving, turning them into even more adrenaline fueled sequences. While turned on though, your field of view is severely impaired making it easier to be killed or crash your car. Flying a plane or helicopter is practically impossible. One of the most exciting things you can do in first person is go skydiving.

     Graphically, comparing the next-gen versions of GTA V to the last-gen, the improvements are certainly noticeable, while others are more “behind the scenes.” More radio tracks have been added, reflections can be seen in puddles and the back of cars, plus weather conditions are even more detailed. I assume that the character models have been improved, though it would take a deeper view and critique to really judge them. Lighting is more dynamic and draw distance has been increased as well.

     GTA V’s story is riveting because it weaves the three characters together while still managing excellently to keep them individualized at the same time. Side missions include “Strangers and Freaks”; missions where you meet strangers or freaks and carry out missions for them, races, and even specific side missions assigned to some of the characters. Grand Theft Auto V is a top-notch entry in the Rockstar Games’ series. With so many amazing additions, it's hard to comprehend how they could improve on a possible sequel.

PROS:

-          Three different, detailed characters

-          GTA Online

-          First person

-          Improved graphics

CONS:

-          Certain unsavory online players

Final Score: 9.5/10

"Far Cry 4" Review

     

     Far Cry 4 is a bigger, badder and better Far Cry 3. Bigger guns, bigger animals and bigger violence. You are Ajay Ghale, son of the founder of the “Golden Path”, Mohan Ghale. Set in a luscious, open world “Kyrat”, Far Cry 4 is filled with tall, green-grass mountains and even snowy mountains in the Himalayas. The world is huge and there is certainly plenty to do. You originally come to Kyrat to scatter your mother’s ashes, but you are interrupted by an eccentric, but absolutely insane warlord, Pagan Min (voiced by Troy Baker). Pagan kidnaps you and invites you to dinner. Like I said, insane warlord. You manage to escape and meet up with the “Golden Path.” They explain to you that there is a war going on and that they could really use your help to stop it.

     That’s about all there is to the opening of “Far Cry” and then you are thrust into the open-world of Kyrat. You don’t start out with much, but it won’t take long before you are a gun-wielding badass. Money is easily obtainable making Far Cry’s weapons and other things quickly purchasable. Available for purchase are the game’s regular weapons, signature weapons (weapons that come with attachments and better stats), and maps that reveal collectibles and unknown locations on your map. Collectibles don’t really offer much and I lacked any motivation to really go after them. Far Cry 4 is violent as all hell. Each time you are injured and you heal yourself, Ajay will most likely pick a bullet out of his arm with a twig or snap his hand back into place, etc. It’s brutal takedowns and fierce weaponry really bring the game to life. From stabbing someone through their chest from behind or slitting their throat from behind to blowing someone up with C4; Far Cry’s violence is absolutely beautiful.

     While killing everything that stands in your way is half of Far Cry 4¸the other half is hunting dangerous wildlife. There are rhinos, tigers, leopards, honey badgers (yes, honey badgers), yaks, bears, wolves, etc. Each is either easy to kill, kind of hard to kill, or damn near impossible to kill. If you’re going hunting, I would strongly advise you to use a bow and arrow, as it allows for a “clean kill” giving you two animal skins per kill making crafting much easier. Just a real quick side note here; YOU CAN RIDE AN ELEPHANT AND SHOOT WHILE RIDING IT. The most majestic creature of the game; you can walk right up to one and climb on. Elephants are one of your best options if you’re looking to take on a multitude of enemies. They’re even good for hunting if you are hunting something much bigger than you, say, a rhino. Elephants are able to charge at enemies and hit or pick them up with their trunks, followed by slamming them into the ground violently. Anyway, there are ten items to craft allowing increased capacity for each.

     There are two leaders of the Golden Path, Amita and Sabal. Both have different visions for Kyrat. Sabal wants to marry a young princess, Bhadra, and seize complete control of Kyrat. Amita wants to fund Kyrat using it’s drug trade. Throughout the story, Far Cry gives you the option to either side with Amita or Sabal. Each decision you make will put one of them ahead of the other on the path to become the Golden Path’s true leader. The game does a great job of testing your morals as you decide who to side with. Trust me; it’s a hard choice to make. Both Amita and Sabal offer compelling reasons behind their causes and it will often be hard for you to choose. Far Cry 4’s voice acting is solid for the most part, despite Ajay’s voice actor’s droll performance. Troy Baker as Pagan Min is great, but highly underutilized as he only makes a few appearances throughout the game otherwise taunting you via radio.

     Side missions consist of liberating outposts by taking out a select number of enemies, liberating belltowers by climbing to the top, assassinations, hostage rescues, stopping truck convoys, etc. There is also an arena in that offers weapon challenges, an endless mode, and your basic round by round mode. Ajay has a skill tree featuring two sections, “The Tiger” and “The Elephant.” “The Tiger” section consists of skill upgrades for combat while “The Elephant” section consists of skill upgrades to health and syringes. Syringes are crafted using plants littered throughout the environment and give temporary skills like tagging all animals and or enemies in the area or allowing you to deal double damage, but take double damage as well.

     Graphically, Far Cry 4’s environments are breathtaking. Tall trees and even taller mountains make for a wonderful sense of verticality to the game’s world. Far Cry’s mountains can be traversed a multitude of ways. Most mountains can be driven up using vehicles. Another quick side note here, driving is very awkward at first. It is done using the left stick to accelerate and reverse while the back triggers are used to aim and shoot. At first, I hated it, but I grew accustomed to it and came to appreciate the change of controls. However, if you’re not a fan though, you can change the controls to the usual setup via the start menu. There is also a small helicopter, (gyrocopter), and a grappling hook at your disposal to make your way up mountains. Character models look decent, nothing amazing.

     Oops, I almost forgot, one of Far Cry 4’s most “trippy” aspects are its multiple journeys available to you by participating in some side missions provided to you by Yogi and Reggie. They hand you a joint, followed by a surprise-syringe and off you go to the land of bright colors and evil creatures. These drug-induced adventures give a nice touch to the game adding a different bit of scenery. Far Cry’s campaign took me about twenty hours, a moderate amount of time and I enjoyed all of it. The game also features a co-op mode and the ability to create your own levels and share them with the rest of the Far Cry 4 community. Unfortunately, I have not had any experience with co-op mode as I spent the bulk of my time with the campaign. By the end of the game, you start to think to yourself, “was it really all worth it?” As you mowed down countless lives all in the name of what? The “Golden Path?” You are practically just a senseless killing machine; Ajay barely has any humanity portrayed through his few lines throughout the story. He’s just a shell, and a violent one at that. You never really even see your face besides a barely visible glimpse from a phone screen which just adds to your lack of humanity.

     In conclusion, Far Cry 4 is essentially “Far Cry 3 2.0.” It’s a new entry in the Far Cry series with new additions. It is not a brand new game. Most character models look similar to Far Cry 3, while the animals and environments have improved greatly. Also, comparing Far Cry 4’s framerate to Far Cry’s 3’s atrocious framerate, there is a huge improvement and I never encountered any bad framerate drops. It might not be an entirely brand new game, but the additions made to it make it a worthwhile entry in the “Far Cry” series.

PROS:

-          Huge open-world

-          Brutal violence

-          Improved hunting experience

-          Testing your morals

-          RIDING AN ELEPHANT

CONS:

-          Pointless collectibles

-          Mostly droll voice-acting

-          Inhumane protagonist

Final Score: 8.5/10

PlayStation Experience 2014

     

     So, PlayStation Experience was this past weekend and there are a few things I’d like to talk about. Some of the titles shown off were, “Severed”, “Street Fighter V” (Exclusive to PS4), “Super Time Force Ultra”, No Man’s Sky”, “Until Dawn”, “The Order: 1886” and “Uncharted 4.” “Severed” is a new game developed by Drinkbox. “Severed” is a creative looking game with using the past stylings of “Guacamelee” combined with enemies that you have to slice up. It also includes puzzles. Not much else has been revealed.

     “Street Fighter V’s” huge announcement was that it will be exclusive to PS4. Being that I have never played “Street Fighter”, there isn’t much I can say except that it looks like a cool brawler. Graphically speaking, the game doesn’t look that impressive. “Super Time Force Ultra” is a retro art style game through the “Space Time Continuum.” It features multiple playable characters and co-op. In the beginning of the video there is a funny surprise; it’s not hard to spot. The game looks pretty similar to “Broforce” coming to PS4 and PS Vita soon. “No Man’s Sky” is a game developed by Hello Games. It features mainly flight exploration, but also on-foot exploration. It is not quite clear to me what exactly the objective is in “No Man’s Sky”, but this game looks pretty damn cool considering it is being developed by a company who started out on mobile devices’ app stores. The game’s art style is breathtakingly beautiful.

     “Until Dawn” is a new survival-horror game coming to PS4. Hayden Panettiere is the star of the game. From what the teaser shows, the game looks like a run and hide type of game. Although, I am hoping that weapons of some sort are integrated. It looks pretty freaky. I have also read that if your character dies, that’s it. You move on to another character, just like in “Heavy Rain.” “The Order: 1886’s” new gameplay showcases its crisp graphics and steampunk art. The game’s weapons look intriguing and the cover-based and or run and gun bits of combat look quite entertaining. My only problem with this game from what I have seen so far is that I fear that it will just become a stick to cover while going in and out shooting at enemies type of game. I really hope that the story is engaging and the gameplay does not get old fast.

     I saved the best for last; “Uncharted 4.” WOW. As per usual, Naughty Dog has crafted an unprecedented looking game. Everything in “Uncharted” has been turned up to 11. Better graphics, crisper textures, detailed particle effects, dynamic lighting and let’s not forget, the action. Screw 11, the action in “Uncharted 4” has been turned up to 100. Take downs ranging from sliding down a mud hill, jumping and hooking an enemy right in the face to using a grappling hook to swing from a tree branch and swing right into an enemy knocking him out and grabbing his gun in mid-air. The scope of the game from what I can tell by watching the gameplay looks ginormous. A huge, lush-green tropical area. I am loving the jungle vibe and hoping that Naughty Dog sticks to it. Well, those are all my thoughts on PlayStation Experience. For more reviews and other “thoughts” stick to my blog and I’ll keep em’ coming.

Why I Started This Blog

In High School, I was in a Journalism class. Most of the writing assignments gave us free reign to do what we wanted; I chose to write about video games. I started out small, writing about Splinter Cell: Blacklist removing the longtime voice of Sam Fisher, Michael Ironside, and replacing him. Eventually I started writing about the consoles I purchased, i.e. the PS Vita and the PlayStation 4. Then I moved on to reviewing video games. After the class was over, I didn’t quite know what to do with my writings, so I decided that I would start a blog. Considering that I had no idea how to create a website, I used Google’s “Blogger” service to get me started.

     The first game I ever reviewed was Injustice: Gods Among Us. I had written the review for a class assignment. Once the school year was over, I started my blog. My first few posts were leftover from the assignments in class. After that, I began buying games that I was into and reviewing them. Soon after my first official publish on my blog, I realized that I had an extreme passion for this. I would publish a new review for almost every game I purchased. A new review would be published about every month or two. I was really getting into the swing of things.

     It is so simple for anyone out there to start their own blog and begin publishing. There are many blog services. Two of the most popular are “WordPress” and “Blogger.” What really makes it so easy is that even these two most popular blog services are free and easy to use. Anyone can start their own blog and publish as much content as they want, whenever they want. People can voice their opinions, their views about anything. They do not need to keep everything to themselves. Or, if they’ve been looking for someone to talk to about the things they think about, they can do that now! Anybody can visit your blog, read your ideas and respond to what you write.

     The message “hidden” inside blog services is that we were meant to tell/show the world what we are thinking about all the time and not worry about what other people might think. Blogs are not forceful. People can view them if and when they want to. So far, I have 1,905 page views in total. It’s not necessarily a lot, but I’m getting there. I have added non-intrusive advertisements on the blog and whenever somebody clicks on one, I make a very small amount of money. So far, I’ve made $0.12. But who cares, I’m doing what I love.
     The type of people who would view my blog would pretty much be anyone who plays video games and enjoys reading opinions on them. Why? Well, because I write about video games and I give my opinion on them when reviewing them. I started my blog over a year ago and I did not think that I will still be posting today, but I am and I love it.