"The Witcher III: Wild Hunt" Review

     The Witcher III: Wild Hunt has tales of horrific monsters, a deep, rich world, wondrous magic, bloody-fun combat; yet a lackluster story. There is plenty here to marvel at, but is there really enough to hold your interest in developer, CD Projekt RED's latest venture in The Witcher series? Players take control of Geralt of Rivia. Ciri, a girl who Geralt holds very close to his heart, has gone missing. Geralt must go on a long quest to find her, all while meeting old acquaintances and dealing with the "Wild Hunt," a menacing force plaguing the game's world. Sounds cool, right? You would expect the story to be very engaging based on the above description, but it unfortunately boils down to a bunch of "fetch quests" for people. "Oh Geralt, could you find this for me?" "Oh Geralt, would you kindly solve this mystery for me?" Frankly, you'll have considerably more fun with the engaging side-quests, rather than the main story. There are tons upon tons of side-quests, ranging from monster contracts to treasure hunts. It'll be quite some time before you've even neared completing all of them.

     First, I must say that Wild Hunt is a GORGEOUS game. From its bright sun and luscious fields of grass at daytime to its alluring moon and the cries of wolves at night time, it's certainly quite the treat to behold. There are many different areas to explore, each just as big and intricately-designed as the last. People just going about their business surround you practically wherever you go. Character models have an astonishing attention to detail. Even watching Geralt's hair flip around as he moves is entertaining. You can tell that there is no way this game would have been playable on last-generation consoles. There is just too much on screen. If you ever decide to play Wild Hunt for yourself, you should do two things. One, turn the game's impressive, but also very annoying at times soundtrack all the way down and two, just go for a stroll or ride your horse through the beautiful world that CD Projekt RED has created. I honestly believe that it would be impossible to grow tired of looking at Wild Hunt's stunning world.

     Secondly, there are a lot of things to be afraid of in Wild Hunt. But don't worry, you have a lot at your disposal to dispatch them. Geralt can use "Signs" to shoot fire from his hands, summon a shield to protect his body from damage and influence opponents' minds so they'll attack each other, as well as other magical abilities. You may also craft potions. Of course, if you're not such a fan of the magic or potions at your disposal, there are always Geralt's two swords. Geralt's steel sword is used to fight humans, while his silver sword is strictly for doing battle with Wild Hunt's large array of monsters. If you are ever having trouble with a particular monster, just consult your handy "Bestiary," where you will find its weaknesses and a short description on it. Geralt also has his "Witcher sense" for discovering things in the environment and examining them. You should always be keeping a close-eye on your weapons' stats whether its their damage that is just too low for certain battles or they are dangerously-close to breaking. New weapons can be crafted by blacksmiths by finding diagrams throughout the world. If you are close to breaking your weapon, head on over to a blacksmith and pay a small fee to have it restored to its former glory.
     However, there is a catch with the blacksmiths. Only those with a certain level can craft particular things for you. For instance, an "Amateur Blacksmith" will be unable to craft a high-level weapon. You would however be able to get your weapon crafted at a "Journeyman Blacksmith." Both blacksmiths and shopkeepers also offer items needed for crafting, but you are better off looking for these items yourself than buying them due to inflated prices. Most items can even be dismantled by a blacksmith in favor of specific materials you might need. The only gripe I have about Wild Hunt's crafting is how unnecessarily complicated it is. There is just way too much on screen in the crafting menu. There had to have been a better way to implement crafting in this game.

     Thirdly, combat, albeit a tad clunky, is extremely satisfying and gory. Finishing moves can be executed, severing limbs or even slicing the head or half of an opponent's body off. Geralt can also parry his opponents' attacks and then proceed to unleash a flurry of light and heavy attacks. Like I said before, you are likely to find combat a little tough at first due to its clunky nature, but you will get the hang of it eventually. Upgrades can be acquired by earning "ability points" through leveling up Geralt. Even more ability points can be acquired by finding "places of power" throughout your environment. These "ability points" can be spent on Geralt's combat skills, magic skills, etc. To get the most out of Wild Hunt's combat, I would advise using an equal combo of both swordplay and magic.

     I found the game's characters to be uninteresting and it was difficult to establish any kind of real bond with them. Geralt might be the only character I was truly intrigued by in even the slightest, but his "gravel voice" didn't exactly help maintain my interest in him. Many of the other characters feel under-developed due to their constant request of you to simply do things for them. Scenes of dialogue are often dragged out for way too long and I found myself skipping them frequently just to reach the end of the conversation. Most of the time, you have the option to gauge for more information by asking other available questions, but it really isn't even necessary to do so. There are loading screens, but they move quickly. Voice-acting is solid throughout the game as well.
     The Witcher III: Wild Hunt is certainly an impressive feat by developer, CD Projekt RED, but does fall short ever so slightly with some of it's problems.
PROS:
- Deep, rich world
- Engaging side-quests
- Absolutely gorgeous everywhere
- Large array of monsters
- Extremely satisfying combat
CONS:
- Lackluster story
- Overly-complicated crafting system
- Uninteresting characters
Final Score: 8.5/10

"Shovel Knight" Review

     

     Shovel Knight, both developed and published by developer Yacht Club Games, is an adorable homage to old school gaming and it shows with every minute of gameplay. You play as the aforementioned Shovel Knight in this 8-bit, side-scrolling platformer. You must work your way through a large array of bosses in order to reach and defeat The Enchantress and save your lost love, Shield Knight, in an inspiring, hilarious and heroic tale. I'm only twenty years old and haven't exactly played a lot of older games, but when I played Shovel Knight, it was like I traveled back in time to the era of old-school gaming. Get your shovels ready knights, because we're going on an adventure!
     Split into four sections with multiple levels, including optional ones, there's quite a bit of stuff for you to do in Shovel Knight. You have a main hub called the "Village" where you can interact with townsfolk and purchase upgrades for your health and magic. Certain upgrades such as additional moves are available, but unfortunately, there aren't enough of them and they feel kind of useless. You can also go to an armor outpost and buy different kinds of armor, offering you different abilities, but in the end, these felt merely cosmetic. Throughout each level, you'll be collecting lots of treasure. Each time you die, you lose a hefty amount of this treasure, but it can be retrieved upon respawning. Relics can also be found, giving you additional abilities at the cost of magic each time you use them. There are also checkpoints in each level that can be destroyed for treasure at the expense of no longer having a checkpoint.

     Shovel Knight's level design is its most brilliant aspect. Cleverly designed with contemplative navigation, multiple secret paths, and ingenious boss fights, you'll be smiling (and crying) the whole way through, but I'll get to that. Navigating the levels here will require quick-thinking as one hit could bounce you back and have you falling to your death. Let me tell you a short story real quick. A specific segment of the game has a blue treasure chest. I'd advise you to not open it, but you kind of have to in order to progress. You knock it open with your shovel and begin to rummage through it, but suddenly, a giant Angler fish with the treasure chest attached to it arises; its a trap! You begin to run for your life, carefully timing your jumps to reach each platform to get the hell out of there. As for the multiple secret paths, there are walls that can be destroyed with your shovel revealing treasure. There are also shortcuts around enemies sometimes.

     Combat in Shovel Knight will appear to be simple, but it's more challenging than you think as there are many different types of enemies, each with their own tactic. You'd think that a shovel wouldn't exactly be a very powerful weapon, but in this universe, you're wrong. Your attack is simply mapped to one button, but a downward stab can be performed by jumping and holding "down" as well. Boss battles are innovative with different phases and designs. You'll have to learn and adapt to these phases in order to win. I remember dying over twenty times during the Propeller Knight boss because of his floating ship blowing the ground out from under me with cannon balls. I was ready to cry. By the end of the game, I looked at my stats and found out that I had died over seventy times during the Propeller Knight level. That damn flying bastard. Oh, and if you're playing on the PlayStation version, keep an eye out for a certain pale-skinned boss. ;)

     The art design here in Shovel Knight is magnificent. Every pixelated environment will catch your eye with its attention to detail. I loved watching Shovel Knight run. Seeing his legs move; it was like I was playing Mario. From the dark, ominous areas to the bright, luscious ones, my eyes always widened with happiness as I continued to play. Even the way the map is designed is straight out of the old-school gaming era. The game's soundtrack will have your ears listening intently as you wait for the infectious music to change with each level. You do have the option to start a new-game plus upon completion, but there just wasn't enough here to warrant me starting the story all over again. Yacht Club games is certainly an ambitious developer and it shows with the amount of love put into Shovel Knight. I can't wait to see what they have planned next!
PROS:
- Inspiring, heroic tale
- Good amount of content
- Cleverly designed levels
- Many different types of enemies
- Creative boss battles
- Magnificent art design
- Infectious soundtrack
CONS:
- Certain upgrades feel useless
- Not enough here to warrant starting a New Game Plus
Final Score: 8.5/10

PlayStation 4 Console Review By: Dan Papa

PlayStation 4 Console Review

By: Dan Papa

     Sony has come a long way with their technology, and the PlayStation 4 is nothing short of amazing. It’s hardware capitalizes on everything. The console is fast, fluent, and takes multi-tasking to a whole new level, considering the PlayStation 3 wasn’t really good at multi-tasking, at all. The PS4 sports a GPU: AMD next-generation Radeon based graphics engine and a 500 GB hard drive. But, don’t get your hopes up about the large starting hard drive. Each PS4 game takes up about three times more memory than a PS3 game did, which is quite disappointing. But, if you are like me, it shouldn’t bother you too much, considering you could just delete a game when you are done with it.

     Next, the controllers are revamped to improve on literally every aspect of the Dualshock 3. The Dualshock 4 has indented analogs for more precise movements. The controller actually reminds me of the XBOX 360 controller. The L2 and R2 buttons are now triggers, which is a change, but not much of a noticeable one. I didn’t think that the button triggers made much of a difference when compared to the Dualshock 3. Another creative, but not necessarily important feature that was added was an integrated touchpad in the center of the controller. Uses consist of opening up certain menus in games, etc. Unfortunately, unless more games really capitalize on it, I see it being quite the pointless feature. One last feature on the new controller is the “LED player identifier.” Its uses consist of showing if a player is low on health in certain games, or it just glows. The controller also comes with a headset jack, along with a cheap little headset, and a small integrated speaker on the front, that actually omits certain sound effects from some of the games you are playing.

     The “start” button on the controller is now the “options” button for some god forsaken reason, who knows, but continuing on; the “select” button is now the share button.  The “share” button when clicked, lets players’ record videos of their games and also captures screen shots. Video recordings are initiated by holding down the share button for a short amount of time and then releasing. An icon that looks like a piece of film strip with a red dot will appear on the screen letting you know that you have started your recording. Screen shots are captured by double clicking the share button. I believe these can be uploaded to social networks, I’m not sure. Another welcomed addition is the ability to broadcast live gameplay via streaming to friends or others. The quality isn’t perfect, but this addition is sure to make many players happy. I have yet to use it, because I realized that you can only broadcast gameplay live if you use your master account on your PS4. This is quite unfortunate considering the fact that I don’t really use my master account anymore because all my friends I play with online are on my Sub account.

     Going back to multi-tasking, it is so great it’s not even funny. Example; let’s say you are playing a game and you want to go to the PlayStation store to download a demo a friend told you about, but don’t want to quit your game. Well, you don’t have to. Just click the PlayStation icon button in the center of the controller, and it will take you to the main menu and you can open up the PlayStation store while your game is still running. However, you cannot open up a bunch of applications, things will be required to close sometimes. On a side note, the PlayStation store does not run like a piece of junk like the updated one of the PS3 did,J.

     The PlayStation 4’s design is eye candy. It is elegant to look at and it is also very sleek and light weight. It does attract dust and fingerprints easily, so if you are a clean freak, be careful. The front has two USB ports and the buttons for eject and power on it. The buttons are very small and a bit hard to see in the dark, but no matter. The console comes with an HDMI cable this time around, thankfully. Setup is easy, just like the PS3. You should be done setting up the console in a matter of minutes. Discussing the PlayStation 4’s camera, its, well, “eh.” While it has a sleek look and captures in 1280x800 at 60 frames per second, it doesn’t have much use for now. Also, it’s $59.99, so I would recommend saving your money.  The most anyone could probably get out of it is using it for the “Playroom.” The “Playroom” is an app on the PlayStation 4 that lets players interact with little robots as a small little activity for fun, letting players kick, touch, and or throw the little guys on or off screen.

To be honest, I only really have one complaint with the PlayStation 4. Its launch titles, or lack thereof. The titles available for the PS4 at launch were Angry Birds Star Wars, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - Standard Edition, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Contrast (Free for PS Plus), DC Universe Online, Escape Plan, Escape Plan Collection, FIFA 14, Flower, Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition, Just Dance, Killzone Shadow Fall, Knack, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, NBA LIVE 14, Need For Speed Rivals, Putty Squad, Sound Shapes, Super Motherload, Trine 2: Complete Story, Resogun (Free for PS Plus), and Warframe. Yes, it’s a lot of games, but most aren’t exactly worthy as PS4 launch titles, except for Killzone Shadow Fall, Resogun, Lego Marvel Super Heroes, and Battlefield 4. Some of them are just the same games, except with all the DLC. If you really want to test the power of your PS4 and be amazed by some games, a wise choice would be to wait to for better titles, which aren’t that far away. Thief, February 25, 2014 and Infamous: Second Son, March 21^st, 2014, and Watch Dogs, June 30, 2014 will be released in the coming months. J

In short, the PlayStation 4 is a breathtaking new take on the console generation with highly improved specs, gameplay, and graphics. If you are looking for a next gen console, I recommend the PS4; it’s only $399. The XBOX One is $499. Your choice. What will you decide? Happy gaming! J

And don’t forget to check out my other reviews, thanks.

-          - Dan Papa

Injustice Gods Among Us Review By: Dan Papa

Injustice Gods Among Us

Review

     Injustice Gods Among Us is a 2D/3D super hero fighting game made by NetherRealm Studios and directed by Ed Boon.  The game features 24 playable characters, as well as 4 additional DLC characters which will all be released by the end of August 2013.  So far, two DLC characters have already been released.  Those two characters are “Lobo” and “Batgirl.”  All 24 regular characters in Injustice Gods Among Us are Aquaman, Ares, Bane, Batman, Black Adam, Catwoman, Cyborg, Deathstroke, Doomsday, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, Hawkgirl, Joker, Killer Frost, Lex Luthor, Nightwing, Raven, Shazam, Sinestro, Solomon Grundy, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  The game features 15 DC authentic maps with some favorites like the Hall Of Justice, Arkham Asylum from the Batman Arkham Game series, Wayne Manor, The Batcave, The Fortress of Solitude, and Metropolis.

     Injustice has a story and multiplayer mode.  Story mode took me about 5 hours to beat.  You don’t get to walk around; you just play through 12 chapters as some of the characters in the game. Although, the game’s story mode was quite short, it was deep and enthralling with plot twists and unbelievable events.  Multiplayer is a huge step up from NetherRealm Studio’s previous game, Mortal Kombat (2011).  Almost all lag was eradicated, and matches could be found a lot easier.  Also, there were new additions to multiplayer, including rooms that could be created for specific types of players, and “player cards” and background portraits, kind of like from Call of Duty.

     An added bonus to the game was the fact that many of the original voice actors of the characters in the game were back voicing the characters.  Some great ones included Kevin Conroy (Batman) and George Newbern (Superman, Justice League).  Although, Mark Hamill (The Joker) was nowhere to be found, but the voice actor for The Joker in Injustice, Richard Epcar was pretty good.  The original voices added that awesome nostalgic feeling bringing me back to my childhood with my favorite superheroes and supervillains.  NetherRealm Studios really went the extra mile to make Injustice Gods Among Us feel authentic to everyone.

     The characters in the game obviously each have their own unique abilities, but each character has a super move that is charged by their meter throughout the match based on the attacks you land or whenever your opponent lands an attack on you.  The meter fills faster when an opponent lands an attack on you.  The meter bar can also be used to add more hits, etc. to a certain attack.  There is also a “clash” in the match where both characters run at each other using a decided portion of their meters and whoever uses the most meter and wins the clash, gets a reward like extra health for themselves or extra damage done to their opponent.  Back to super moves; each character has a “super move” that is triggered by the two back trigger buttons on the XBOX or PS3 controller.  An example of a super move would be when Batman throws a smoke bomb at you, tasers you, knees you in the chin, throws an explosive batarang at your face, then does a back flip over the Batmobile as it comes out of nowhere and runs you over.  Many of the super moves are absolutely ridiculous, but they are what add more awesomeness to the game.  For instance, an extremely ridiculous one would be Aquaman’s; where he summons the most anatomically incorrect shark ever to eat you out of nowhere.  Character’s attacks differ with light, medium, heavy, combo, and advanced attacks.

     Going back to the maps; they all have interactive objects and separate parts of arenas in them.  An example would be in the Metropolis map where smaller characters can either blow up a car, or bigger characters can pick it up and literally throw it at their opponent.  Also by hitting back and x/a at the same time on either the XBOX or PS3 controller near a certain edge of the map in the game you can hit your opponent into a completely different area of the map.  Of course if you don’t want these abilities in the match, you may turn them off.  Some of the area transitions in the game are just glorious!  I won’t spoil anything, but you can get launched off a catapult and crash through a statue on the island of Themyscira, oops.  Another awesome thing about Injustice Gods Among Us, is alternate costumes for the game’s characters.  An example would be Batman, with various skins including, Batman Beyond, FlashPoint, and Arkham Asylum.  Some of the skins are even free, but the skin packs you have to pay for cost $2.99. Each DLC character individually costs $4.99.  An awesome skin pack example would be a classic Teen Titans one containing costumes for Cyborg, Deathstroke, and Raven.  The alternate costumes in the game allow you to play as different versions of your character, some even from your childhood, which is awesome!

     I do have a couple of gripes with the game though.  There is a mobile game for Injustice, but unfortunately it is only for Apple devices.  That isn’t even the worst part though.  The mobile game allows you to unlock awesome alternate costumes for the console game when you complete certain challenges.  This is a bummer because not all people own Apple devices, many people have Android devices and it has been said by Android owners that they are quite disappointed in this poor decision, because they cannot enjoy certain alternate costumes.  Another complaint about the game is the fact that there are some amazing DC characters missing from the game.  A few fan favorites missing would include Static Shock, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman (even though the game does have Hawkgirl), Blue Beetle, Darkseid, Robin, Beastboy, and Starfire, but Ed Boon stated, “I certainly don't think I can safely say that it's four and only four.” With all that being said, Injustice Gods Among Us is an amazing fighter game with only a couple small gripes.  I rate the game a 9 out of 10.