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Wrestling With Control

Wrestling With Control

Posted by on Nov 14, 2019 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

I finally got around to playing Control over the weekend. I’ve had it for a while now but put it on the back burner because I heard it was a short game. What I heard turned out to be right, but it’s the kind of thing that gets one thinking even after finishing it.

Control is an action game that feels like it’s set in an episode of the X-Files. There’s a lot of weirdness going on and a lot of it is unexplained. And even when the game explains things there’s still some afterthought required to process the information. I think I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me talk about the action part first. Control is a third-person shooter. The player takes on the role of Jesse Faden, a girl in search of her brother. Gameplay consists of shooting and platforming. Jesse is armed with a gun that changes forms: one minute it’s a handgun, the next it’s a rocket launcher. All of the forms have some sort of utility over the different enemies and environments in the game, but I definitely found myself playing favorites with a few of them.

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On Borderlands 3

On Borderlands 3

Posted by on Nov 8, 2019 in Commentary, featured |

I started Borderlands 3 with Amara, the Siren. Having played most of the previous game with Maya—BL2’s Siren—I thought it would be a natural progression. At some point around level 10 or 11 I began to find gameplay difficult so I stopped and tried Zane, the Operative.

Things became even more difficult.

So I stopped and thought for a second. One of the things that was getting in the way was ammo. What I never liked about the Borderlands series as a whole is that I always seemed to run out of bullets. Ammo, like all loot, is generated randomly, so getting lucky with finding a good gun feels useless when I don’t have anything to shoot it with.

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On Monster Hunter World

On Monster Hunter World

Posted by on Apr 5, 2018 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

Monster Hunter World is my third attempt at getting into the Monster Hunter series. The first two were on handhelds, the PSP and the 3DS. I couldn’t get into them because I struggled with the camera controls. I also felt that the series wasn’t noob-friendly, so it was pretty discouraging. In fact, for years I fostered the belief that the cycle of mission-based games—get a mission, complete the mission, get another mission, repeat—wasn’t for me. I thought it was the reason why I didn’t finish MGS V, Freedom Wars and the like. Who knows? Maybe it’s still not.

Monster Hunter World is a good argument against it though. It’s certainly more accessible than the previous versions I played, which is good. It’s also great to hear that series veterans aren’t turned away by it. In gaming, making something more accessible to newcomers usually means watering down complex gameplay mechanics, the same mechanics that series veterans expect and love. MHW managed to strike a balance, a rare feat in modern gaming design.

So what’s it like being a noob in Monster Hunter? Challenging—sometimes to the point of frustration—yet rewarding and ultimately fun. It took a second character and around 200 hours to get to the point of feeling like I know what I’m doing, and even then I still feel like an idiot when I get my ass handed to me. A key thing that MHW does masterfully is how it delivers progression. The raised difficulty of each new monster feels just right, that the challenges presented are tough but fair. I will say this though: the game requires a lot of investment. I don’t recommend it for anyone not willing to put in the time and effort.

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On Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

On Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds

Posted by on Jan 4, 2018 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

New Game Plus on Ultra Hard—those are the settings I chose to play Horizon Zero Dawn and its new DLC The Frozen Wilds. I haven’t played the game for over a year now and found myself needing to relearn some of the game’s mechanics. Most of it was easy to remember but the worst thing that I forgot was being able to notch multiple arrows. That’s what I get for not reviewing Aloy’s skills.

Ultra Hard, the game’s highest difficult, was not much of a challenge when I started out. That changed when I got to the DLC area. The increased health of the daemonic machines presented two problems: they were tougher to kill, which also meant that they cost more to kill. Fights with the new enemies—scorchers, frostclaws and fireclaws—are consistently difficult. They are also a drain on resources. I found myself restocking on blaze and chillwater after finishing a mission or two.

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On Mass Effect Andromeda

On Mass Effect Andromeda

Posted by on Oct 2, 2017 in Commentary, featured, PS4 |

Mass Effect: Andromeda is a half-baked mess. What was supposed to be a new and exciting adventure turned out to be a broken, limited game with lackluster characters and no compelling story. It’s like Bioware suddenly forgot what makes Mass Effect what it is after releasing the original trilogy.

I’m going to start with what they got half-right: the action. Combat in Mass Effect features third-person shooting mixed with the spellcasting. The game does not call it spellcasting, of course, but when characters are throwing fire and lightning from their hands then it’s just semantics. Andromeda got rid of character classes so players can buy any ability they want, which is great because mixing and matching abilities is something the series has never done before.

The problem is that the game limits usable abilities to three. Yes, only three. This design choice does not make any sense. First, what was the point of making all abilities available if you can only use three of them? Second, previous Mass Effect games had no such limit, even while running on last-gen consoles! Dragon Age Inquisition, another Bioware title, also allowed multiple ability usage.

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Mass Effect Andromeda: A Ryder Ring Build

Mass Effect Andromeda: A Ryder Ring Build

Posted by on Jul 31, 2017 in featured, Guides, PS4 |

This build for Mass Effect Andromeda focuses on creating an infinite offensive loop around your powers and weapons. By combining skills and mods, it’s possible to make Ryder self-sufficient, removing the need to resupply on ammo and health. I’m calling it a Ryder Ring. And yes, this build works on Insanity difficulty.

Powers, Skills and Augmentations

Lance: Damage & Force, Anti-Shield, Shield-PoweredAllows Lance to be spammed as long as shields are available. Hold off on the last upgrade until shield regen is at a decent level.
Energy Drain: Recharge Speed, Extended Drain, DamageYour go-to power for taking shields down. Also restores your shields, making this better than Overload for this build.
Barrier: Unyielding Barrier, Biotic Alacrity, Active BarrierMore shields.
Incinerate: Radius, Anti-Armor, Double IncinerateYour anti-armor power. Also works wonders on unprotected foes.
Offensive Biotics: Amplitude, Detonation, Biotic ExpertBoosts the raw and combo damage done by Lance.
Team Support: Support, Team Recovery, Life SupportHeals you when you use tech powers. The heal works even when you don’t hit anything.
Weapon: Dhan Shotgun with Bio-Converter and Seeking Plasma augmentationsReloading draws from your health instead of your ammo stock, which you heal by using your tech powers.
The seeking plasma aug turns the shotgun into a pseudo-rocket launcher.
Note: Using a Shield Oscillator mod on your weapon will restore shields per reload but will not provide infinite ammo. No infinite ammo, no Ryder Ring.
Armor: Remnant or Pathfinder Chest with Shield Oscillator augmentationRemnant boosts health and shield regen while Pathfinder boosts power restoration and defense. Choice is up to you.
Shield Oscillator aug restores shields per kill.

 

 

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