Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! Review

The newest entry into to Borderlands series is Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! which isn't a sequel to Borderlands 2 but a prequel to it but also a sequel to the original Borderlands, basically making it somewhat of a strange entry placed in between the two.

If you've played both Borderlands 1 and 2 then you're wondering why you should get the Pre-Sequel!? Well dependent on how much you love the franchise will definitely sway you to buy the game but if you're not into the series as much and still on the fence about the purchase then I'll go on to explain why you shouldn't buy the game.

The story of The Pre-Sequel! follows the story of four new Vault Hunters; Athena, Wilhelm, Nisha and Claptrap. With the introduction of new playable characters comes new skills and I was disappointed to find out that the Siren class wouldn't be returning as they had some of the most useful and unique abilities in the game.

The skills of each character are:

Athena

Athena: "It allows her to raise her Aspis shield for a short time, and use it to absorb incoming damage. Once charged, the Aspis can then be thrown at targets to release its pent up energy in a devastating attack." (Taken from borderlands.wikia.com)

Wilhelm

Wilhelm: "Activation of this skill will deploy Wolf, a floating red attacking robot, and Saint, a white supporting robot. The robots can be recalled, and both of them can receive various upgrades from skills." (Taken from borderlands.wikia.com)

Nisha

Nisha: "Automatically aim at enemies while drastically increasing Gun Damage, Fire Rate, Reload Speed, Accuracy, and Bullet Speed." (Taken from borderlands.wikia.com)

Claptrap

Claptrap: "Upon activation, VaultHunter.EXE will analyse the situation, and will bestow a "Action Package" depending on the criteria met. The effects of some Action Packages may extend to nearby allies. More outcomes can be made available by investing in certain skills in the skill tree." (Taken from borderlands.wikia.com)

The first disappointing element of The Pre-Sequel!'s story was that unless your characters were Claptrap or Athena, your character wouldn't play much of a big role in the overall story. Especially Nisha. Compared to past Borderlands games, The Pre-Sequel! has by far the worst put together story. Borderlands 2 originally felt like much of a fetch quest storyline but at least it had surprises a lot more unique encounters in it.

<<Spoiler Free>>

The storyline of The Pre-Sequel! focuses on Jack, the main antagonist of Borderlands 2. The Pre-Sequel! exists to explain the reason of why Jack became known as Handsome Jack and why he is the bad guy in Borderlands 2. The development of Jack becoming the bad guy started off good but as the story went on it became somewhat rushed to reach an ending with the final encounters in the game having no backstory as to why such things exist. The Pre-Sequel! does explain the lore of the world a bit better than Borderlands 1 or 2 but that's only because both those games existed that helped shape this story. I found most of my time not caring about the story at all similar to Borderlands 1 and 2. The story is uninteresting in the way they present it. You are given free reign to go and kill whatever you want while the NPCs blabber on and on.

You would think that at least Gearbox would bring in a bigger cast of new characters but instead they just recycle the older characters from Borderlands 1. It just seems as if Gearbox can't get rid of the greatness of Borderlands 1 by continually reusing aspects of the original game and the sequel game.

World map

Instead of exploring Pandora this time round, you explore the Moon's surface along with, eventually, the Hyperion space station. The world isn't as big as Borderlands 2 and the teleport booths are spread out thinly across large expanses of map forcing you to walk a distance before you can get a vehicle or teleport. The Moon's is inhabited by humans who, the majority of, speak in an Australian accent. Now, as an Australian myself, I thought it was pretty unique that they would make most of the NPCs in this game have a different accent to those of Pandora but how wrong I was. The worst thing about having the accent constantly in your ear is that it's the typical stereotyped accent of Australia. You hear most NPCs speaking like idiots and you rarely find a single intelligible NPC in the game. The world was just annoying the moment I stepped on it.

Concordia is the main hub similar to Sacntuary from Borderlands 2.

You still get the experience of doing a lot of side quests to level up and unlock different weapons or even skins or heads to customize your character. But all this feels extremely repetitive if you've already played the other Borderlands games. Most of the side quests in this game, similar to the quests in the older games, are just time fillers for leveling between main quests or stronger regions. They provide little to no significance to the rest of the story other than a tiny little tidbit of information into the location of which most of the time you don't even care what the NPC has to say. The main story took around 10-11 hours to complete, only doing a few side missions along the way. In general it felt a lot shorter than what Borderlands 1 or 2 had to offer in terms of story length. Because it's a prequel to Borderlands 2, you can easily gauge the length of the story by Jack's progression.

The gameplay is just a copy of what Borderlands 2 had, even the issues from graphic issues to menu problems and gunplay to the continual dying you'll have throughout your game time. The fact that Gearbox just copy and pasted Borderlands 2 over into this game is saddening considering they didn't even fix many of the issues that existed in Borderlands 2.

Weapon menu

The game features different king of enemies ranging from robots to crazed humans to animals on the Moon's surface. You'll find yourself comparing most of the enemies to Borderlands 2 enemies due to the similarities they have such as the human enemies Scavs to Bandits, Kraggons which are just Scags infused with the Moon's surface. There are different factions of humans in the game increasing the diversity in terms of name but not in terms of AI. There are Scavengers, to Scavs, Raiders and Lunatics to name the main ones.

The gunplay in general is solid with the addition of a new type of weapon which is the laser rifle. All the gun types from the original game still exist such as pistols, snipers, rifles, smg and rocket launchers. The guns in the game are identified mainly by their brand which are still the same as Borderlands 2 with the addition of a new brand Scav (which I don't know the benefits of). Most brands have their own unique effect that can help you choose which type of gun you would mainly use. For example, Hyperion guns are more accurate the longer you fire, Maliwan guns are good at dealing elemental damage but suffer less overall gun damage.

You'll find yourself dying over and over again as it seems to be a recurring factor of the Borderlands experience. If Gearbox could do a better job of balancing enemies to not have so many deaths involved in general combat would be great. The fact that you die a lot annoys the player more than it makes you think that you need to perform better as there are a lot things that one shot your shield then one shot you're character.

You still get the basic menu of 4 weapons that you can use. (You only start with 2 but you get more as you level up). Along with a shield slot that provides a shield that absorbs damage and sometimes has special effects that occur when depleted. A class item that provides bonuses specifically to your class. A grenade mod that determines what your grenade does, whether it's just a thrown grenade or a sticky or if it is a continual area effect or it may be a cluster grenade etc.). An oxygen kit slot that houses an item that determines how much oxygen you have and has a ability that determines how much damage your 'butt-slam' ability does which is an ability that occurs when you jump and slam down to the ground from a height.

The movement was changed to accompany the fact that you're in a zero atmosphere environment meaning that your jumps last longer and you need to breathe using this oxygen system in the game. I played Claptrap and as a robot you don't need oxygen to breathe which was one of the reasons Claptrap was the better character to choose of the four. You can also use your oxygen supple as a sort of movement booster that would help you glide as you jumped.

Skill tree

The skills of the game are still the same as Borderlands 2 in the way that you are only allowed 1 active skill which gets additional bonuses as you level up your character. Veterans of the series will be familiar with the skill tree system that exists in The Pre-Sequel!. You are given three trees of which all have unique abilities suited for a specific style of gameplay. You can't max every skill in the skill tree but you can get close to maxing two I believe as I don't know the current max level. I honestly wanted the game to have more than 1 active skill to make it more diverse and fun but alas there is still only 1 skill.

The Pre-Sequel! still has that unique cell shaded, bordered outlines design that made it so popular when it was first shown off in Borderlands. I will say that I do somewhat enjoy the art style of the game because IT IS really unique but having played both Borderlands and Borderlands 2 you can obviously see the reused models with just differently coloured textures.

I can't help but make comparisons to Borderlands 2 because The Pre-Sequel! is basically the same game with a different story and landscape. The Pre-Sequel! is definitely not worth the full price it is asking for as it's more of a full priced expansion than a unique title in the series. The Pre-Sequel! is really a disappointment of a game from Gearbox and 2K Australia. I'm hoping that the reason two studios made this game is because most of the work force from Gearbox are actually developing a proper sequel to the Borderlands franchise.

Basically, if it's your first Borderlands game you might as well buy Borderlands 2 because that gives you a more fulfilling experience even without all the DLC. You should only buy this game if you're a really really big fan of the Borderlands franchise. If not and you have played the previous games, you should skip this one and wait for the next one.

6/10 - Doesn't make any step forwards in anything. It's more of a reskin than a full game release and paying $80-100 AUD for this game is criminal. Unless you're a die hard Borderlands fan, there is nothing of interest in this game. Skip it.

DriveClub Review

DriveClub is the first exclusive racing game to grace the PlayStation 4, touting amazing graphics and solid gameplay but does it really deliver on those fronts or does it 'disgrace' the PlayStation 4?

We all know that racing games are one of the hardest genres of gaming to introduce something new and groundbreaking. DriveClub doesn't deliver that racing experience that changes the game in any way but it does provide a solid racing experience in its barebones state but it does those aspects right.

The game types you can play.

The racing events you can participate in.

The game features three gametypes of which are Tour (single-player), Single Event and Multiplayer. The Tour gametype brings you into a screen where you are greeted with many events of which have a completion challenge in all of them. Simple challenges ranging from 'Finish in the top 3' to 'Beat the top speed face-off'. These challenges are what earns you Stars or Medals which allow you to advance to the next bunch of racing events. It works it the way that if you haven't unlocked enough Stars, then you can't play the next level of races until you have completed enough challenges. This may sound daunting but the developers were nice enough to make most of the challenges achievable on your first race in most cases. The only hard challenges which require a lot of skill mastering every corner and speed straight is the time trials which boast some ridiculous times to beat if you wish to earn gold in the event. But aside from that I found myself going through the events without having to repeat any to earn those extra challenge stars. I did find myself, though, restarting races many times due to my mistakes or because of the AI which will be touched upon later. Overall, the single-player experience was solid and I guess I didn't completely finish the single-player as I have 1 more event to complete before I can do the Legend race.

The game features a leveling system alongside the Stars system of unlocking races. The levels in the game help you unlock cars. The highest level I found within the car unlocks was level 40 of which I'm currently only level 27 after nearly finishing the game meaning that you need to play a lot of races from single-player to multiplayer in order to unlock those exotic high level cars. Some other cars require you to have a Club Level which can only be achieved if you join a club, hence the name DriveClub. You are free to choose whatever club you want to join and along with those other racers in the club, you do events to help raise the total points so you can advance to the next level to unlock better cars.

Options you have in single event.

The Single Event is as you would assume, a single race. You can change the map, weather, crowd size, AI amount, AI difficulty and the gamemode from Race to Time Trial to Drift. The Single Event is self explanatory but note that there is no splitscreen gameplay which I would've liked.

Me on the red team.

Finally connected to the servers.

The Multiplayer is where the real talk comes in. On release multiplayer was not working at all as no one could connect to the servers. Two weeks down the line and I can say that multiplayer is functional albeit with a lot of disconnections and issues. One of the issues is that you are paired with racers from around the world as I've found myself racing Americans to Europeans. This doesn't really affect the gameplay a whole lot compared to FPS games where the ping matters because Evolution Studios were smart in making players with higher ping become ghosts so that you won't collide with them. Out of the 5 multiplayer games I've played (busy with university) I've thoroughly enjoyed them all. Races can either be every racer for themselves or it can be split into teams. The way teams win is obviously to the amount of points each team earns through their ranking in the end. The main reason multiplayer is fun is that there are the really good racers who can do turns properly and then there are those really bad players that just crash all over the place, just before writing up this review, I started at 9th place which is last and managed to get myself to 3rd place before the race finished. I guess the multiplayer aspect of the game just has a good way of ranking you among the players based on how well you do in general. Although racing online can be enjoyable there are still disconnects and a few issues related to the menu and long load times of lobbies in multiplayer but those are issues that Evolution Studios can fix and here's to hoping that hopefully soon, the game will be smooth as butter and everyone can enjoy the game because it is solid.

Hard to steer and take a photo.

The gameplay is a mix between realism and arcade. The general speed and control of the cars resemble that of a simulation racer but the drifting and as well as speed control in general feel really arcadey. You don't find yourself slowing down to a halt around corners compared to those of simulation games as you can glide through corners at relatively high speeds perfectly fine. The handling is smooth on all cars, the range is from controllable drift to cars that just feel like they're driving on ice. There isn't much to mention about gameplay as it's what you would expect in a racing game. It's just mixed between simulation and arcade. You have the options of switching between third person to hood view to cockpit view. The cockpit view is really immersive and represents the scenes really well. With the joystick you can look out the sides of the windows at your opponents. But I mostly used third person.

Gameplay then brings me to AI which is one of the biggest complaints I personally have about the game. The AI don't really act or perform realistically. Sometimes you and the opponent turn around the corner at the same speed in the same car but somehow they manage to gain a large speed boost advantage over you and zoom ahead. I've found that to happen more than once and not only in turns but on straights as well. AI usually don't go around corners at high speeds so you expect your speed devil corner skills to be advantageous of the AI who turn the corner slowly but no, they manage to outrun you in straights even though you know your car is much faster. AI are also extremely aggressive, I guess due to the lack of a damage model the AI can be as aggressive as they want with no penalty which is annoying. Though the AI are aggressive and makes you wonder why they are, multiplayer is where the real aggression exists. Everyone is just bashing into each other but to me multiplayer is more fun to be in with players that are aggressive because it's more fun for some reason. But finally, it also brings me to the somewhat broken penalty system they have with collision. You get penalised if you collide heavily with another car but you also get penalised if the other car rams into your rear which is unfair, Evolution Studios say they are going to address this but I'm still waiting.

McLaren

There is a total of five tiers of cars starting from crap hatchbacks to the more extreme Hyper cars which I like the most for obvious reasons, GOTTA GO FAST!! Each tier has a fair amount of cars to choose from going through all the popular car brands such as Ferrari to McLaren to Maserati and so on. There is a lack of Lamborghini which was disappointing. BUT the cars do like amazing and they all handled differently. Even when you're playing against AI you tend to choose the car you are most comfortable with in the tier as you find yourself performing much better with a car you like than to those you don't know the controls to. There isn't a lot of car details on performance but those bar graphs are enough to help you understand the basics of what the cars are capable of.

Customization

There isn't a lot of customization options within the game which is rather disappointing to many but I'm not too fussed on big customization options such as spoilers and alloy wheels. There is a relatively detailed car paint system that allows you to add multiple decals to your vehicle to make it look shiny and colourful.

Snow

The graphics is where the game really shines. Although it's just a car game, it does look superb. From the reflections to the general landscape and the day and night cycles. Sadly, as of writing this review, there is no weather in the game because for some reason it wasn't ready at launch at they need to patch it in. But regardless of that, DriveClub is one of the best looking racers to date and the damage models, though not really damaged more scratch models, are detailed and nice to look at at the end of the race to see how much you've damaged your car.

Overall, the game is a solid racer that doesn't deserve the hate it's getting. People on the internet like to rage at anything and everything so if you're put off by the ragers saying that this game is bad don't be because it's not. The single player experience can keep you going for a while until you unlock nearly everything because it's all achievable and by then you can go online and face the hordes of crazy racers from bad to amazingly bullshit. I've enjoyed my experience with the game so far and I'm looking forward to playing online more as they continue to fix all the issues that plague it but I'm not too fussed. If it isn't working one day, I'll go do something else and come back the next day.

The game is definitely worth a try at best but there is the PS+ debacle that hasn't been solved yet but I can't complain about that because I have the full game. It caters more to an arcade style racing game so if you like simulation racers you shouldn't get this game, wait for Gran Turismo. If not then get this game because it'll be a while probably until another arcade racer comes by.

6/10 - Not worth a purchase at the moment. The content is sparse at best with very little amount of actual game modes and cars to unlock. The career is straight forward and far to easy to really enjoy a lot. Should wait for more content to release before considering purchasing this game. There is great potential for the game's driving mechanics.

(Don't compare this to Forza Horizon 2. Unless you own both consoles you can't compare them. If you only have a PS4, get DriveClub. If you only have an Xbox One, get Forza Horizon 2. Stop comparing.)

Destiny Review

Destiny is a FPS made by Bungie and is their first new IP since the creation of Halo. Destiny comes across as an FPS and MMO hybrid contrary to what Bungie has you believe as they said Destiny isn't an MMO but it plays and has a lot of content and attributes that link it to MMO games.

The story of Destiny is one of the most criticised points of the game and for me it's no exception. Destiny's story is absolute trash. Bungie have created a very interesting world for you to explore but for whatever reason, the world feels empty and misrepresented. The characters are forgettable and can't be taken seriously. The dialogue is horribly written, who knows, maybe Bungie purposely made the dialogue reveal nothing so that they can include the full story in DLCs to come. You are a Guardian, a soldier of Light that was given these powers by the Traveler. A large ball of some sort that gave way to the Golden Age of humanity, granting humans an extended life span and terraforming the planets and moons so that they provide resources and can be settled upon. This explains the reason Mars, Venus and the Moon, the only explorable regions to be able to be inhabited.Your mission is to fight against this 'darkness' which no one knows what it is because it's never explained in the story. The game spans over around 5-10 hours of story content of which of those hours you spend mindlessly shooting at waves and waves of enemies until the Ghost, who is your companion on your journey gifted to you by the guardian, manages to decipher a door code or scans some object. The enemies you face on your journey are the Fallen, an alien race that were once prosperous but now they're bandits, vandals and pirates, the Hive, another alien race that consists of magic wielding Wizards and heavily armed Knights and finally the Vex, an automaton type alien that can teleport and the Cabal, a monstrous race of large bodies aliens who are the military type of race. These enemies are very limited in how much each race has. The limitations of the variety of enemies in each race can be a bit underwhelming but because of their limits, calling them out in co-op gameplay can be easy to understand and deal with. The story has around 3-5 cutscenes of which do a poor job of explaining the scenario and why the cutscene needs to exist at all if the story can't even sort itself out. The worlds you can explore in this game are Earth, the Moon, Venus and Mars. The explorable areas are somewhat big but nothing compared to MMOs or even open world games which are single player. The areas are large but feel empty due to repetitive spawns and wasted space. Earth is, as you can expect, just earth, all you get to explore is the snow covered landscape of Old Russia. The moon is just the moon, a grey rock. Venus is the best looking place with lush grasslands and tall trees and tall cliffs over a large and mysterious backdrop of a landscape. Mars, finally, is the red planet you've always been reading about. It's just sand everywhere.

The Traveler, a white ball of Light that no one knows anything about.

For such a large solar system, there is only a few we can explore.

Each Guardian has available to them 2 variants of special abilities called SubClass. Of which all provide an elemental effect on them. These abilities are the main attraction of Destiny. The abilities you get depend on the class you choose which ranges from Hunter, Warlock and Titan. Your basic DPS, mage and tank. The Hunter has the Golden Gun ability which lets them kill an enemy instantly but it's only limited to 3 shots, their second ability lets them become stronger as they dash around and kill everything in site with their blade for a short duration. The Warlock has the ability to cast a large Nova Bomb which explodes and deals massive damage to enemies caught within the blast, their second ability gives them the power to instant revive and have low cooldowns on their grenade and melee abilities.. The Titan can jump and slam down dealing damage to enemies around, their second special variant is the ability to create a large dome that protects all guardians inside it. With these abilities comes extra unlockable skills that players can work towards and adjust to fit their playstyle. There is Toughness, which grants better resistance against enemy attacks, Agility, which grants faster movement speed and better jump height and finally Recovery which determines how fast your shields and HP regenerate. Alongside these attribute upgrades there are also different variants of the grenades you have, there are also different changes to your special ability which can sometimes be completely different in what they provide but you can only use one at a time.

The skill tree is alright and a nice touch to Destiny.

But the redeeming factor of all of this is that Destiny is undoubtedly a solid shooter. The mechanics are well done with movements and gunplay being extremely fluid compared to the likes of Call of Duty. You can wield 3 weapons at a time, the primary weapon can range from pulse rifles (burst fire weapons) to assault rifles and scout rifles (marksman rifles). Your second set of weapons range from shotguns to snipers to fusion rifles which are weapons that fire a quick round of bullets but they need to be charged before you can discharge. The final set of weapons is your heavy weapons which can be either a rocket launcher or a machine gun. The game features a loot system similar to that of Borderlands that provides weapons as well as armour which you can upgrade as you go on your journey. Weapons and armour also have a skill tree of which can be upgraded through continual use and the upgrades can be very useful. As with most RPG styled leveling systems, the lower level items are useless and don't need to be necessarily upgraded until you reach the level cap of 20 which can be reached in a short 10 or so hours. Once your level 20, then the real grind and upgrading begins as all items level 20 will provide good benefits to your guardian. Beyond level 20 is the light levels which currently cap at 30. These light levels increase by wearing level 20 armour that have the Light stat. You will need a specific amount of Light across all your armour in order to increase your light level from 20 to 30. These extra light levels help as they statistically help you do more damage against the enemies. An average player with all legendary equipment can get to a max of level 28 and once you have an exotic equipped you can go to level 29. You can only reach level 30 once you get raid equipment. There is also an element system in place to deal with the shields of enemies. There are 3 elements currently; void, solar and arc. The element needed to deal with the shields of enemies is shown  by the colour of their shield as you shoot at them.

To get these upgrades of weapons and armour, you're tasked with doing repetitive game content. Doing missions over again if specified by bounties which are basically the small quests in the game. You will find most of time doing Strikes which are similar to dungeons in MMO titles. These dungeons are by no means hard as you can solo them in a much longer time but thanks to matchmaking, finding a fireteam to finish Strikes is relatively easy. Though repetitive, Bungie have upped the rewards given by Strikes in a recent patch so they are no longer completely useless other than for their Vanguard Marks which are a type of currency to purchase items form the Vanguard vendors. Finally there are the Raids which is for the higher level players of level 28 which is the recommended level. These raids are tough but is where all the fun resides. A lot of players and myself have played the raid for their compulsory need of teamwork in order to conquer the current objective and the rewards are always better than that of the strikes. The only thing I can say that is bad about the Raid is that Bungie had to patch the raid access in around 2 weeks after the launch of the game which in my opinion is an unacceptable practice. More and more games are following suit in this type of content release by locking disc based content and giving it to players weeks or months after release, this could also be the case for the upcoming DLC but we'll see.

Finally we get to the only OK part of the game which is the PVP. The Crucible is where most players spend their time playing against other players competing in a PVP system and gaining Crucible Marks which are another type of currency used to buy Crucible based weapons and armour. There are only a few game modes currently available, Control, which is similar to domination in the CoD games, Clash, a team deathmatch gamemode and Rumble, a free-for-all and also Skirmish, a 3 v 3 team deathmatch mode mainly built around fireteasms. Sometimes we get patches to unlock gamemodes for a weak or so and those gamemodes are Salvage which is a fireteam based gamemode requiring you to hold a point for points, basically like King of the Hill. Combined Arms is the gamemode focused on big maps and vehicle only combat. There are only 10 maps currently available for play in Destiny and these maps range from good to why did Bungie make this. The good maps are the small maps which take no time at all for action but the bad maps are the bigger maps which are focused more on vehicle warfare but when you play a gamemode like Clash or Control on the big maps, most of the time you spend trying to find enemies than actually shooting enemies. The PVP experience can sometimes be a pain in the ass due to lag disadvantages and broken special abilities. Sometimes in PVP special abilities seem stronger than others and level definitely plays a part in the game even though Bungie said there is no level advantage in PVP. Stronger weapons always seem to do more damage as well as shotguns and fusion rifles doing mass amounts of damage which can kill you before you can even retaliate. It's the only game I've played where the laggier player gets the advantage as the zip across the map killing players because no one can shoot at them because their continually rubberbanding and zipping across the map. These small but annoying attributes can really make a PVP match feel horrible and before you go around saying that maybe I'm just shit at this game, don't, because I'm not.

We now come to the audio side of things. Music in this game is superb on the other hand. Sweeping instrumentals always give this game a bit of life. The music that plays during bossfights are intense and provide a good background to when playing. The sound of abilities are good to hear and somewhat different when playing in PVP so you can differentiate between the skills. The guns sounds on the other hand mainly all sound the same, just pitched differently or have different rates at which they're played depending on the weapon you're using. The enemies can be differentiated by their shouts but in general, the enemy sounds are as limited as there are enemy variants.

The visuals of this game are great for a 1080p game but definitely something that can be patched to 60 frames per second as it currently runs at 30 frames but the 30 frames of performance are extremely smooth as I've found no spikes or hiccups in my 100 hours or so of gameplay. There is a lot of lens flare from almost anything shiny which is something some may not like but I just like bright lights and lens flare. The guns looks nice but the repetitive weapon models can easily be seen repeated over and over with just slightly different adjustments and colours.

Overall, Destiny is a solid shooter experience for those looking to fill that gap as I found myself doing. Although the game is good, it lacks content but if you like redoing the same Strikes and playing the same 10 PVP maps over and over then it's the game for you. I've only found myself playing this long because of the Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks cap which they've which makes me come back to finish them off so I can finally buy those last pairs of boots I've been looking for. I will continue playing this game until something like CoD AW comes out so I can yet again fill that void of a competitive FPS game to play because in my opinion, although Destiny's PVP is good, it's not great. It's frustrating most of the time due to imbalance in weapons and skills and some player levels but it's currently the only thing I have to play.

You should definitely wait for more content to release alongside Destiny before considering purchasing this game. Bungie have made it clear that they are providing content patches bi-weekly to keep players interested but the content so far in those patches have ranged from lackluster to absolute useless. I would refrain buying Destiny and spend your money on one of the bigger games coming out this holiday season and only consider Destiny if the December DLC adds any significant content that can bring this game out from the ground. Also, if you're sick and tired of all the FPS shooter games out there and looking for something different, Destiny might be for you.

6/10 - I like to compare this game to an MMO because it basically plays like one. Boring and repetitive missions with crappy uninspired dungeons and one raid. Singleplayer is a grind fest and a boring one at that.  A lackluster release from Bungie. Multiplayer is unbalanced and a bit broken with the Guardian skills that aren't design for clean and balanced gameplay.

It's your Destiny to not become Legend, and not purchase this game.

Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor Review

Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor (SoM) provides a fulfilling third person action experience coupled with a great appreciation for Tolkien Lord of the Rings lore.

You play a ranger named Talion who is now a ghost haunted by an unknown curse. You watch as your family are killed right before your very eyes. As the Black Hand goes to slit your throat and kill you, you wake up from death and wonder why you didn't join your family. This is the basis of the story for SoM as you try to identify why you're cursed to live beyond death and as to why another ghostly figure resides within you. The ghostly figure has no recollection of his past so your journey contains two parts of which one is your personal journey to find why you're cursed and the other is to find the identity of the figure. The ghostly figure you find out to be Celebrimbor, the maker of the rings of power, early in the game. You start off in Mordor but the game takes you to the second zone which is the land of Nurnen. Mordor is more of a dark and sinister looking place with dirt tracks and strongholds full of dirty orcs but Nurnen provides the opposite feeling of a grassland that stretches the landscape with far more cliffs bordering the Sea of Nurnen. The orcs in Nurnen instead hold themselves in ruined forts instead of the drab wooden strongholds in Mordor.

The story takes you across Mordor as you slay Uruk' Ai, the orc army of Sauron. This is where the Nemesis System comes into play. The Nemesis System is an extremely unique system that ranks the orcs based on strength and their experiences. Once you die the orcs that killed you will advance in ranks of Sauron's army and those that survived the fight will also be promoted. Orcs can fight each other to gain ranks in the army and you can interrupt specific events in the game in order to weaken a specific orc captain. The strongest of the orcs are the war chiefs who have their own bodyguards. If you engage in combat directly with an orc war chief and you haven't killed his bodyguards prior to the fight, then you'll be fighting the war chief along with all his bodyguards that are still alive. In the second half of the game you get the ability to brand orcs basically making them your minions of war. You can command them to fight by your side against the orc army but the great thing about branding orcs for your dirty work is that branded orcs can influence the tide in the Nemesis System. Branded captains can grow in strength as you protect them during combat events to help promote them in the ranks of the army. You can brand a low-level captain and eventually work your way by helping him kill orcs in the rank above him to make him a war chief, then you basically control all the orcs units that belong to that specific war chief. The system also provides a strengths and weaknesses info on orcs of which you can acquire this info from rats in the orc army by interrogating the orc in question. This information can be extremely useful for dispatching orcs efficiently. Finding an orcs weakness can make the fight a lot easier as some orcs can be vulnerable to stealth kills which can make for killing that orc instantaneous but some orcs are immune to stealth kills. Orcs can be afraid of fire or if an orc is on fire then the orc captain will become enraged with strength as he may hate seeing other orcs in pain.

The combat in SoM is one of the most free flowing and well made combat systems that I've played in a long time. You have three weapons at your disposal, a sword mainly used for combat, a bow that can take out targets at range and a dagger that you use to stealth kill enemies. The great thing about combat is that you can go in like a berserker and just slay orcs as you see them or you can go in with stealth and kill orcs silently without ever having to engage in combat with multiple orcs. Parkour or climbing in this game is very simple but useful to traverse tall towers or higher plains in order to get a better view of the battlefield so you can plan your attack and use your archery skills to take out other archers that the orcs might have or you can climb towers quickly to eliminate the archers in stealth. Combat is based on a combo system where for every hit you get, your counter goes up. There is a skill tree in the game for combat, your abilities with the bow and your focus meter which is used to slow down time so you can focus your shots as well as the ability to upgrade the amount of rune slots you can have for each weapon. Each weapon can have a total of 5 runes equipped. Runes are acquired from killing orc captains and they provide a small but useful buff to the weapon. Buffs for example can be lifestealing at a percentage chance or receiving less damage from long ranged attacks. The sword can perform executions with a press of a button but only if your combo meter is at x8 and so on (x16, x24....etc). Shooting orcs with your bow will also add to the combo meter. Skill unlocks can ease the amount of combo needed to perform these extra attacks such as halving the amount needed to x4 and so on, or allowing you to perform two executions from one combo. There are some QTE prompts that notify you when to block an attack. Some may think this a bit too easy but you can turn it off. I left it on and though it was a bit easy to block attacks because of the prompt, it does get confusing a little bit difficult when you're fighting 50 orcs at one time.

You also have the ability to mount creatures in the world of Middle-earth, mainly the caragor, a four legged aggressive monster that moves extremely quickly and bites hard. Some orcs have a fear of caragors which can come in handy but some hate them so they might become enraged if you ride into battle mounted on one of them.

SoM has a fair amount of extra content outside of its story progression. There are missions such as save the slaves or weapon specific missions for the sword, bow and dagger. You can also collect collectibles across the game that provide lore hints to the player. Every bit of collectible provides a decent description of the lore and be interesting to read as some of the collectibles provide voiced dialogue.

The graphics of the game aren't mind blowing but they are nice to look at. The grass moves as you go through them. The characters are high res in comparison to the lower res landscape but in general the game isn't ugly, it's rather nice, just not super nice. (what?)

The voice acting in this game is amazing with the performances from Troy Baker and Alastair Duncan. Troy Baker voices Talion and even though Troy has an american accent, he provides an extremely well done english one. Alastair Duncan plays the role of Celebrimbor. The banter that goes on between the two is good and revolves around the lore present in Middle-earth.

The music is spectacular as the first instance of music in the game reminded me of the LOTR movies. The music that plays during exploration is calming and the combat music gets you pumped up to slay orcs. The sounds of the caragors to the voice acting of the orcs is all extremely well done. The slicing sounds as you cut up orcs is always satisfying to hear and witness. The squeels from the ghuls and the roars from the orcs are all well done. The voices of the orcs all provide a gritty english feel and they all have personality.

SoM, outside its general story progression, provides a fair amount of content to keep you going to 100%. The side missions and extra challenges the game gives are never impossible and are plausible enough for you to finish and get all achievements and 100% the game of which I'll be doing.

8/10 - The combat is great in this game, providing a satisfying combo system albeit a bit easy once you advance further into the game and unlock more skills. The explorable land is quite large as you are given two land masses to explore and complete. The story is nice but nothing too spectacular outside of the lore references. The game has been getting averages of around 15 hours to complete the main story though I finished it in 11 hours. Nevertheless, the game provides a fair amount of content for you to complete and SoM is definitely a great game worth your time and money.