FIREWATCH – A very broken game

Playstation had a deal not too long ago and FIREWATCH was on sale for a very reasonable price, around $8 -13. I had heard some good things about this game so I decided to buy it and give it a try. I played it with a friend watching on New Year’s eve 2016.

All was good. We had made it to day 77, and for some reason which I cannot remember I quit the game to check something on the XBN of my Playstation 4, and then I went back and started the game anew. What I encountered when I started it up was that the game would not load. Not even a little bit. Not even in the load game screen. Continue didn’t start the game nor did the save file. We did some digging around on the web and decided to try and download my saved game data from the online storage. To our surprise the save data wasn’t even present in the cloud or on my PS4. WTF Santo Campo!?! Did your compliance team even catch this issue? Did you fix it? Nooooope. We were forced to restart the game. Thankfully it’s a short game and can be played in a few hours, but still. Super annoying.

Now while my friend was checking the internet and I was zipping through the slog at the beginning, he found yet another potential blocker found somewhere around Day 79 which half the players encountered. Thankfully when we got to that point I did not otherwise I’d be emailing Playstation store for a full refund. Unfortunately it was a digital sale and cannot be refunded… FU.

As a little side note, my friend and I are professional QA video game testers. Which means we test video games for  bugs on a full time basis, and when we encounter a released game that is as broken as FIREWATCH, we are deeply disappointed.

Alright, back to my review….

We both decided it was prudent to start a new game. I was pissed off at this point having paid money for this game, and finding out it’s already so very broken in the most important way. Slogging through the beginning wasn’t fun so I spammed X the whole time trying to choose the same options as before.

I did run the whole time and avoided reporting all the fog. What the fuck is up with Henry and his fog reports? Once I got to the same point where we last were the story started to take many twists. I suspect the two girls in the beginning were a red herring to throw the player off from the actual plot in the story which revolved around Brian Goodwin. I won’t say more in case you’re reading this and you do indeed want to play this game.

We finally made it to the end, but we had encountered massive frame rate issues where the game would just freeze for a second or two. This wasn’t fun, but it’s more acceptable than the not being able to load a save game issue. My friend and I also found it difficult to relate to either of the characters. Henry was unrelated and then there’s Delilah with her “I need to fuck you now” need towards Henry at some point in the game. We both thought that was really off, and not at all appropriate for what was going on in the story. I really, really didn’t like that part AT ALL.

So in the end, the story is okay. It confused the hell out of my friend with all the convoluted plot lines going here and there. I know at one point I was getting very much into it. Sadly the end is very anticlimactic. I suppose it could have been better, but it wasn’t.

Things I like about this game:

• The colour scheme was interesting.
• Dialogue choices.
• The twist in the story.
• The sub trophies were fun.

Things I don’t like :

• The very, very orange-ness of the game when the sun was setting. It was too orange.
• Henry’s arms when he ran. It was very robotic.
• Clunky jump option. No smooth jumping.
• Frame rate issues.
• Couldn’t load saved game after quitting the game in mid-playthrough.
• Save data didn’t upload to the cloud or my PS4 upon first play. Probably the reason for the save data being unable to load cause it’s not present.
• The ending. Too boring.
• This game had way too many issues. They should have been fixed by Campo Santo BEFORE being released.
• The final sub trophy could not be unlocked. I was fuming.
• Had to quit the game before I could unlock Free Roam.
• I did not have an updated map or the axe when loading into Free Roam which meant I had to run around and get all the boxes so I could find the paths on my map.

I read on their website that they provided patches in September to all of these issues, but that was a complete lie. It’s December, and the game is still as broken now as it was four months ago.

All in all I would say for an indie game, it’s an alright story. I don’t recommend this game based on all of the issues I’ve encountered. Personally it’s not worth any of the money you would spend. This game is worth $1. With all the issues you’d want your money back. If you want to play the game, I recommend watching this YouTube Let’s Play video instead. This way you won’t waste any money.

My rating? 4/10

Should you play this? I say maybe. You can get through one play in a few hours.

Enjoy!

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl

Rebel Galaxy – A free PS4 PS Plus game for August.

Have you tried Rebel Galaxy yet??  I recently got it as a Playstation Plus free game for the month of August, and thought I’d give it a try. I’ve only been playing for a few minutes, but already I’m liking it.

I’ve always been a Firefly fan, and when starting this game, the soundtrack starts and guess what? It sounds just like the kind of music you’d hear during your favourite episode of Firefly! I stopped at the local bar (near where my ship spawned) and got my first mission to get whiskey in exchange for some parts for my ship. While I was docked, I also took the opportunity to rename my ship to “Firefly.” I couldn’t resist. 🙂

While playing Rebel Galaxy, you can choose to be anything you want. I’m not sure what role I’m going to take on, but for now it’s the good guy. Get a good name for me around the galaxy and see where it takes me.

In case you don’t know this, Rebel Galaxy is currently FREE in the PS Plus games. It’s a single player game with loads of possibilities. If you haven’t tried it yet, I recommend. If you want to know more about this game, check out YouTube’s Elemental Storm on his take on the 5 reasons why you should be playing this game:

 

Let me know what you think if you get around to playing this! 🙂

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

 

Not many people have heard of this game, and i don’t know why, because I really enjoyed it. It takes place more than 150 years in the future, where the world has transformed with a dwindling human population and merciless robots left over from wars long past. In Enslaved, players take on the role of Monkey, a strong and brutish loner, and his AI partner Trip, a technologically savvy but sheltered young woman from a peaceful community. Both become captured by a mysterious slave ship, which are rumored to harvest people and take them out west never to return.

According to Wikipedia:

The story is a re-imagining of the novel Journey to the West written by Wu Cheng’en. Unlike the original story that was set in a fantastical version of ancient China, the game is set 150 years in a future post-apocalyptic world following a global war, with only remnants of humanity left, along with the still active war machines left over from the conflict. Like the original story however, the plot revolves around someone who forces the help and protection of a warrior, with many characters sharing the same names and roles.

Monkey’s this big strong tough guy, and then there’s young, 19 year old Tripitaka or “Trip.” She’s really good with computers and hacks a slave headband to control Monkey to keep her alive after they both (not together but together) escaped the slave ship. See, she’s extremely vulnerable, and has no combat abilities except for her EMP and Decoy. The headband prevents Monkey from going too far (or else Trip will release a poison to kill him), and forces him to keep Trip alive. If Trip dies, then so does Monkey.

The gameplay is a bit like the very first Uncharted game. The camera freezes in a particular way to illustrate to the player that your next move is somewhere in the vicinity. Once you get past this part, it’s not bad at all. Monkey’s combat is fairly straightforward. His abilities can be upgraded over time with the “Trip Store” by collecting the red tech orbs found throughout the game. And upgradable skills means only one thing! New Game Plus! Okay, no not really, but if you say play the game on Easy or Medium, and then say quit halfway or 3/4 of the way through the game and you decide to start a new game, you will essentially get to keep all of your upgrades! I discovered this one day when I reached a part of the game that required quite a bit of ammo. Let’s just say that I’m not the best shot, so when I got to this area I was shit out of luck. I was so frustrated with having made horrible upgrade choices, I quit my current game and started a new one. I also decided to choose an easier difficulty because quite frankly, I don’t find being punished during a game fun. I play video games because they’re enjoyable, not because they fucking hard and I have to redo a free-form combat 20 times before I can move on. So I started a new game and all of my upgrades were still there. Let’s just say the second time around was a lot more fun. I also whizzed through the first 7 chapters in a 4 hours.

When I saw the DLC was all about Pigsy, the other character in the game, I wasn’t thrilled. I thought, who cares about a short man who looks like a pig? I didn’t think I’d like this character that is likened to a pig, but when Monkey and Trip encountered him, he quickly became my favorite funny character. His comments and questions directed at Monkey were pretty funny.

Pigsy sees Monkey as a funny man, with weird hair, and stating that it’s clear why his name is Monkey. He’s also extremely jealous of him and his relationship with Trip. When I first bought the game I wasn’t interested in the DLC, but I put it in my PSN cart and intend on buying it soon. He’s hilarious. Not to mention… well… I won’t say much more because it’ll spoil the game. Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that Pigsy thinks he’s a ladies man. I mean, he thinks he’s all hot shit, and the ladies love him. Haha.

Things I loved about the game:

• Upgrades carry over to a new game.
• The dialogue in the game, and how amusing it can be.
• Pigsy and what happened between and Trip, and him and Monkey. Hahaha.
• The last two chapters. I loved this story!!
• Pigsy and his comments toward Monkey.
• Trip. She’s my favorite character. She’s sexy, gorgeous, and I really love her outfit.
• Monkey’s body. Rwarrr. He’s hot for a game character.

Things I didn’t like about the game:

• The game was pretty short. I was able to play the entire game in less than 10 hours.
• All the bugs I saw during my playthroughs.

Bugs I encountered during my playthrough: 

• Trip’s hair is constantly clipping through her shoulder or back.
• First time battling the dog with the Cloud, Monkey was falling out of world, except he just kept going higher and higher until the game disappeared and it was replaced with blue then black textures. I must have pushed the right stick too fast, which is what most likely caused the issue.
• Trip walked through Monkey, and dialogue was out of sync. I’m pretty sure all of that was also the cause for Monkey going out of world.
• If you run around grabbing tech orbs, you might see Trip running into a corner. It has happened multiple times.

All in all this is a great game! If you buy the digital game on the Playstation website, you can get the game, the DLC, and two or three skins for $20. If you were to buy the game used at a store like EB Games, it’s only about $9. Totally worth it.

My rating? 8 out of 10! I recommend this game to anyone who likes a good story and some fun times. 🙂

Cheers!

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl.

Remember Me – Neo-Paris in 2084

Let me begin by saying you should never let bad reviews dictate whether you should play a game or not. For months, this is exactly what I did. I had read on Metacritic that the combat was lame, and didn’t allow for much customization (I think), etc.. And so for the few months following the purchase of my Playstation 3, I avoided this game. Then one day I decided to check out the gameplay on YouTube, and a bit of the story, and I told myself fuck it. I’m just going to buy the game. I’d buy it used, and if it wasn’t great, I’d lose no more than $15. I searched in stores, but it wasn’t available anywhere. I found a copy on Amazon. When it arrived in the mail, I was very excited to play. And do you know what? It was worth the money. I really enjoyed the game!

Remember Me is a futuristic, sci-fi action adventure game set in the year 2084, in a futuristic version of Paris called Neo-Paris. Nearly the entire population has a Sensen implant in the back of their neck which allows them to share their memories online, as well as removing unpleasant ones. Unfortunately, the Memorize corporation can control the population and survey them. As a result, a group of rebels formed under the name “Errorists,” and their mission is to bring down Memorize. The Sensen invention also created Leapers who’ve mutated into a subhuman form, living in the sewers, who are sadly memory-addicted, which has degraded their bodies to who they are now.

Nilin, the protagonist, is such an Errorist. She was imprisoned in the Bastille Fortress, and most of her memories were wiped by Memorize. A mysterious man named Edge helps her to escape. This is where the game begins. At first you’re not too sure where she is, or why she’s the way she is.

Remember Me introduces the mechanic of ‘memory remixing’: entering and rearranging a target’s memories to manipulate them. This part is fairly neat. The player can interact with certain objects, or Remembranes, in the memory, and then when it replays the target will react different based on what was changed in the memory. There is a certain way to get the objective, but it’s sometimes through trial and error.

In terms of combat, the game allows players to create and customize their own move combos in the Combo Lab, which uses fighting moves called Pressens that players can reorganize by creating chains, earned through gaining PMP (Procedural Mastering Power), with a limit of four combos being active at any one time. Evidently there are at least 50,000 possible Pressen combinations, so combat can be more fun. During gameplay certain there are special moves, S-Pressens, which are made available to the player through the course of the game: the moves enabling them to do things like stun groups of enemies, move at high speed and land more hits, or turn hostile robots into allies which then self-destruct. The Pressen combos can be modified to produce extraordinary moves, and help reset S-Pressens so they can be used over and over again. Just like anything, everything is earned as the game progresses. The player can build their combos, and as more unlock, combos can be re-made to be better.

During my playthrough, I made combos that regenerated a lot of health and high cooldowns so I wouldn’t have to wait for the countdown to reset my S-Pressen which can be nearly 3 minutes. And 3 minutes of just hand to hand combat with the Leapers can suck balls. By the time I was close to the end, my combos were so long that I could maintain a bit of health and reduce my cooldown by half. But the button combination was crazy!! And if you’re in the middle of doing a combo move, especially a long one, and a Leaper hits you, you have to start that combo from the beginning! So there’s a lot of evading happening, and trying to continuously hit one Leaper to complete said move. I thought that was both neat and frustrating.

This game was a win for me. Not only does it take place in a future, but the story is good, the fighting is challenging, and I thoroughly enjoyed a female as the protagonist.

Things that I liked about this game:

• Memory remixing – A very neat part of the game
• The story – I love all sci-fi / futuristic ideas. Th
• Create your own combos! Yeah!
• New Game Plus: You get to keep everything, except the S-Pressens which are unlocked during certain chapters. And PMP is gained in NG+ by destroying Scaramechs (a white pest).
• It’s definitely got some replayability, especially for all the trophies.

Things I disliked about the game:

• The boss battle in the end was weak and too easy compared to the rest of the fights.
• Scarameches can be difficult to find. Destroying them all gives you the “Pest Control” trophy, though.
• Camera and climbing is a bit like Uncharted or Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, but I got over it pretty quick. It’s their style for this game.

If you’ve never heard of the game, check out this video for some gameplay:

Overall I really enjoyed this game, I do intend on playing it again in new game plus with all my upgrades. 🙂  If you’re into futuristic stuff, you’ll really like this game.

My star rating? 7 out of 10 stars!

I hope you enjoy the game! Cheers!

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl

Beyond: Two Souls – A Review

 A lot of hard core gamers might not call this a video game, but I do, and I loved it! It’s an interactive drama action-adventure game. According to the internet, it was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival making it the second time a film festival recognized a video game. That’s a pretty neat factoid.

I came across this game two ways. One was from a search online of games similar to The Last of Us and this title appeared. I found it on the Playstation online site, and there was a playable demo so i downloaded it. The demo wasn’t very long, maybe 20-30 mins, but it was enough to really wow me. I ran out and bought the disc. As soon as I got home I played it. I love this game.

It’s a story about a young girl named Jodie (Ellen Page) who’s had a psychic connection with an incorporeal ‘spirit’ she calls Aiden since birth. An entity through whom she can communicate with and perform telepathic acts, such as possessing people’s the minds of people and manipulating certain objects. She’s placed in the fictional United States Department of Paranormal Activity by her foster parents, permanently leaving her under the custody of doctors Nathan Dawkins (Willem Dafoe) and Cole Freeman (Kadeem Hardison).

The story is a touching one, and one full of drama and emotion, fear and anger. We follow Jodie through 15 years of her life. Jodie who is linked with Aiden, and Aiden who won’t let her have a life. Nathan who’s building a condenser to connect to the world of the dead, and it’s all so very twisted. She helps Nathan to shut down the condenser when it breaks open and entities escape in the living world. But this gets the attention of the CIA, and they forcibly recruit her, making her an agent. When she realizes the person in Somalia she was asked to killed was simply a peaceful President, she left the CIA disgusted, and of course a chase ensues. The story is much more than just those two paragraphs, but it’s the jist of it.

Now this kind of game is not for everyone, but if you really love story-centric games, this one is definitely one to try. It’s one of the best interactive dramas I’ve ever played. The choices you make throughout the game determine how it’ll play out. I thought that was very cool. Without spoiling the ending, I’m really hoping that they were be many games to follow because they can’t just end it the way they did. There’s definitely talk that they’re thinking of more games to come. I hope they’re right.

Things I loved about this game:

• The characters. Can’t go wrong with Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe. They’re just amazing.
• Aiden. For an entity, he sure does do a lot.
• The timeline, and how the game plays out.
• It’s not just about choosing what Jodie will say. There’s a whole chapter of stealth where the player controls Jodie and Aiden the same way you would say in The Last of Us. The player makes her walk a lot in the game as well.

Things I disliked about this game:

• The ending. It was like opening a can of worms, and then saying “Ok, the game’s over.” The ending is so huge.
• The company, Quantic Dream, suggests you only play the game once, but I’m not going to listen to them.

I highly recommend this game. If you loved The Last of us, you’ll love Beyond: Two Souls. See this game like you’re playing out a novel, watching a child develop into a woman, and you’re making choices for her.

My star rating? 5 out of 5!!!

I hope you enjoy it! Cheers!

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl

Tomb Raider – The video game

I had a lot of fun playing Tomb Raider. I really enjoyed the movies, and when I had bought my PS3 and saw that there was a new Tomb Raider game, I was all over that.

Tomb Raider is a reboot with the all-too-famous character Lara Croft. It’s presented in a third-person perspective. The story kicks off with Lara as an ambitious archaeology graduate who convinces the Nishimura family to fund an expedition in search of the kingdom of Yamatai, just off the coast of Japan. As you probably suspect, the ship hits some very turbulent weather and water, and is shipwrecked on the island, but the group is separated. Lara has to find her way to the rest of her group, and of course runs into some bad guys that are , surprise surprise, part of a malevolent cult.

While playing this game, I really noticed how lovely the graphics were. The deer Lara could stalk, or the beautiful mountains when she was rock climbing to get to her destination. Throughout the game she’d find tools or weapons. Her standard set was a rock climbing pick/axe, and a bow and arrow, and whatever guns she might have salvaged around the island. The combat portion of the game was similar to that of Uncharted such as free use of the bow, or stealth attacks. I did like the fast travel elements. If Lara happened to be in a mountainous area, and near a campsite, she could travel to another campsite she previously visited in the blink of an eye. Ok, maybe a little slower than that, but it was certainly easier than getting there on foot.

There are also some RPG elements incorporated into the game. As you progress, you earn experience points from doing certain things or actions, completing challenges with hunting, combat or exploring and this allows you, the player, to upgrade said skills Lara will have in the options menu. Over time she becomes a better fighter etc..

There are side missions she can complete, tombs to raid, and even multiplayer mode (which I haven’t tried).  Now that I think about it, I don’t even remember the side missions. I guess I’ll have to play it again. I plan on it, since I only got a 48% completion (mostly just trophies). There was a sort of urgency in the main game that had me running to the next objective because I forgot that the person who was in trouble wasn’t going to die if I didn’t rush right there. I played as if it were all in real time. HAHA I think my next time around, I’ll take it easier, and do a lot more exploring. Upon further research, there is no New Game Plus option where you keep your upgrades, and run through the story again. I could finish gathering all the collectibles and so forth, but honestly it’s more of a what’s the point of that if there isn’t a main story to go along with it. To me a game is all about the story and not about getting all the trophies.

What I liked about the game:

• The graphics – they were gorgeous
• The story, and the setting. I’m a HUGE Japanese fan. I even travelled to Japan!
• Lara is the protagonist. A woman who can kick ass and is beautiful? Yes.
• This game has a lot of replayability. I definitely want to play it again someday.

What I disliked about the game:

• It’s unrealistic for a woman (or any person) to be in a tank top in all sorts of cold, rainy weather and not die of exposure. It really bothered me when she was in the snowy areas of the mountains, and in a tank top.
• I found a blocker in one tomb when I played. I had to jump on a suspended block and then jump toward a rock wall and use the pick to “grab” onto it. But when I got there I found that I couldn’t jump off the block as I had hoped (or how the game intended it), and could only hang off the ledge. I got frustrated so I left the tomb. It bugged me for a bit so I checked around and found a forum with other people experiencing the same issue. They suggested just restarting the checkpoint. What’s funny is that as a video game tester, I hadn’t thought of that. HAHA I don’t play my video games to break them. Other than this blocker, I really can’t find anything else disliked about this game.

My rating? 4 out of 5 stars.

I hope you enjoy it! Cheers!

Bitchin’ Gaming Girl

Mirror’s Edge Review

What can I say about Mirror’s Edge? It’s a pretty neat first person look of a girl who’s a courier, and she runs around, and travels the city she lives in by climbing rooftops, scaling walls using pipes, or going through vents.

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. One the love side, I really enjoyed its uniqueness. Running as a courier, doing all sorts of things I can’t or won’t do in real life. She lives a very exciting life. What I hated about the game was how I didn’t quite get a hang of the controls, and some of the jumps would take me a dozen or two dozen times before I finally made it to the other side. What’s important in this game, especially for long jumps or long wall runs, is to keep the momentum going by having a fluidic set of actions that doesn’t break Faith’s momentum. Because if she needs to run along a really long wall, and she doesn’t have the right momentum, well, she’ll fall. And I spent a lot of time watching Faith, the character’s name, falling to her death and hearing the gross splat! sound at the end. But what’s a game without a little challenge right?

Mirror’s Edge is set in a quasi-futuristic dystopian society. You’ll find out pretty quick that the police do not like couriers like Faith, so more often than not, she’s being chased by cops firing guns at her. If you’re successful at taking one down, you can steal their gun and shoot back, but she definitely runs slower with a gun. When she’s not being shot at and outside, you’ll see the urban area is bright and cheery. Everything is very white, or nearly so, and anything that Faith can interact with will highlight red when she’s nearby. Unless you’re playing with that setting turned off, in which it makes things a lot more difficult, especially if you didn’t run through the game once before.
I don’t mind the story in this game, but I think it could have used maybe a bit of work. I won’t spoil it for anyone, but I certainly didn’t play this game for the story. I hope the story is better in the upcoming Mirror’s Edge…

Things I love about this game:

• The soundtrack was amazing (recorded by a Swedish band called Solar Fields
• The clean, primary colours of the urban city
• Running and jumping, and feeling free

Things I dislike about this game:

• The ending was lame
• Some of the jumps were hard
• Story could have used some work
• Once you play it, it loses its appeal and uniqueness and it’s just another parkour game

Despite it all, I was happy I managed to complete this game and that I didn’t give up! I wasn’t sure I was going to finish it because halfway through I got so frustrated with this one jump in the scaffolding, but after a short break (and finding a secret save point) I was able to happily keep playing. I’m actually looking forward to the next Mirror’s Edge game. She’ll be in a new city, there will be an overhaul on the combat mechanics (she won’t be able to pick up and use guns), and there will be a multiplayer option. Should be neat. I’ll definitely be giving it a try.
My rating? 4 out of 5 stars.

Cheers!

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl

Flow & Flower – The video games

Flow is a lovely indie video game by thatgamecompany. In Flow, the player navigates a series of two-dimensional (2D) planes with an aquatic microorganism that evolves by consuming other microorganisms. You can also de-evolve  if you happen to hit an enemy microorganism.

This game is really relaxing, and quite beautiful in its simplicity. There isn’t much to say besides that!! 🙂
My rating? 4 out of 5 stars.

Flower is the third indie game made by thatgamecompany, same company that created Journey, which I love. This came in my Journey collection.

According to Wikipedia….

In Flower, the player controls the wind, blowing a flower petal through the air using the movement of the game controller. Flying close to flowers results in the player’s petal being followed by other flower petals. Approaching flowers may also have side-effects on the game world, such as bringing vibrant color to previously dead fields or activating stationary windmills. The game features no text or dialogue, forming a narrative arc primarily through visual representation and emotional cues.

Of the three games, this is my least favorite. I laboured through it, and I’m glad it was only a few hours long. The neat thing is that the game is controlled with a playstation controller that allows motion. Using the controller you move it in the direction you want the wind to move.

If you think you might be into this, then go for it. 🙂

My rating? 3 out of 5

All in all, if you want to play these games, I suggest buying the Journey collection. You’ll get all 3 games for one great price.

Journey – The most beautiful indie game I’ve ever played.

Journey is by far the most beautiful indie game that I’ve ever played. Journey is exactly what the title says. It’s a journey. Ok, this isn’t going to work. I will paint you a picture.

You pop in the disk, and the game does a little installing on your Playstation. You choose to Start a new Journey. When the title has loaded, you are this little character in a red robe sitting in a desert. The game quietly mentions to take your motion detecting controller and move it from side to side. When doing so, you see the game moves with you. So clean, so simple. Ahead of you you see a large sand dune with stones and a flag blowing in the wind. By now you’ve made your character move 360º and you see there’s nowhere else to go but there. When you get to the top, there you are, this little character all dressed in red, in front of a foreboding mountain. Your task is simple. Explore on your way to the mountain. Soon you’re seeing that there are floating flags around and if you get near them, a little musical sound is heard and whoa! You have a little scarf. Soon you’re prompted that if you push a button on your controller, you can add a little oomph to your next jump. But you see that your scarf which was once highlighted with white is all red again. Time to collect more flags. The controls are simple as is the game. Journey’s story is told wordlessy though in-game and cinematics. Even the soundtrack is beautiful.

For your very first journey, I recommend disconnecting from the Playstation network and playing one game by yourself. I’m sure it’s fun to have someone with you, but when you’re alone you can really take in the beauty, and the struggles this character goes through to get to the mountain. This game also has a co-op option although I have yet to try it. It requires a network connection to the Playstation. You start the game and some anonymous person may (or will?) join your in your journey. There is no communication or competition except for the musical sounds the characters make. I’ve heard from friends that playing the online version of Journey is one to try.

I thought after a long while that I’d play Journey again. Since I already played it, all the levels were unlocked. I chose the one that I thought was next, and ended up on some pink sand. I started toward to the first building I could see and some flying carpet “animals” came out to accompany me / lead me to the next area. The dunes were so high I was glad they were there. When I got there I released more of these creatures. By the time I got to the third building I was joined by an online player! They weren’t with me for very long because I missed my highest jump, and by the time I got to the bottom of the hill, they were gone. But that was my first co-op experience with Journey. 😀

I don’t know too much about the musical score in Journey, but here is some information according to Wikipedia:

Unlike many games, where different songs have different themes for each character or area, Wintory chose to base all of the pieces on one theme which stood for the player and their journey, with cello solos especially representing the player. Wintory describes the music as “like a big cello concerto where you are the soloist and all the rest of the instruments represent the world around you”, though he describes it as not necessarily orchestral due to the inclusion of electronic aspects.[22][24] The cello begins the game as “immersed in a sea of electronic sound”, before first emerging on its own and then merging into a full orchestra, mirroring the player’s journey to the mountain.[25] While the game’s art style is based on several different cultures, Wintory tried to remove any overt cultural influences from the music to make it “as universal and culture-less as possible.”

If you haven’t played this game yet, I think you should. It’s got the highest metacritic rating that I’ve ever seen. The story will evoke some emotions and make you feel things you didn’t think would be possible.

Thinks I like about this game:

• Visuals, graphics, musical soundtrack
• Characters do not speak, but communicate by musical notes
• A co-op journey where two characters can help each other.
• You will want to replay this game over and over. It never gets old.

Things I dislike about this game:

• When I wanted to play Journey a second time, I  didn’t go far and saw that every section of the game was open, and walking into any one of the ‘rooms’ would immediately transport me to that section. What I really wanted was to play it like I did the first time, and I have to figure out how to do that without deleting my save file.

My rating? 10 out of 5 stars.

Cheers

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl

Watch Dogs

Have you ever wanted to be a hacker and steal money from unsuspecting people, but you’re just too technologically inept to figure out how? Or maybe you have morals, and you don’t want to go to prison ?? Well these are all valid reasons why Watch Dogs might be the perfect game for you.

What really attracted me to this game was the ability to hack everything, from buildings to people’s bank accounts. When loading the game, the first option you’ll see is to sign up an email. For the first few days I didn’t think anything of it, so I just ignored it. Also, I couldn’t get my email working. When I finally did, it was worth it. It connects you to the online hacking leaderboard. Whenever you successfully hack another player you gain merit points, and then you can see how your hacking skills stack up to other players. Personally this is a cool option. If you decide you want to remove your email, you not only lose your leaderboard ranking, you also lose all the points you accumulated and will have you start from zero again. This isn’t a good idea, especially if you’ve invested several hours in the game.

Besides getting to hack things, there were many other things a person could do with their character, Aiden Pearce. They could go shopping for new clothes, buy guns, sell stuff they “found” at pawn shops, and buy explosive compounds and electronic parts. You can also withdraw thousands of dollars at every ATM you encounter. By the end of the game I had accumulated over $200,000 and most of it went unspent, even when I bought 5 outfits and always maxed out all my supplies for missions. There was also mini games, side missions like finding clues which led to dead bodies, and the list goes on. The list of extra things Aiden could do in Watch Dogs was extensive. I mean sure, it’s fine and dandy to hack a phone, and steal some cash, but running around the city on a bike or in a car (or even fast travelling in the train) gets old fast. I spent nearly a week doing more open world stuff and less on the main game. After 5-7 days I said that’s enough and focused more or less on the main game. If I was in the neighborhood I’d check in to a hotspot, take out some cash, maybe even get some supplies at the pawn shop, but by the time I had finished Act V, the credits were rolling, and I guess the game was over. After watching 3 sets of credits, I was booted back into the game to “finish” what was left, and what was left was a map that was still 50% full of side missions. I putzed around for a while, joined an online race but after 30 mins or so I didn’t see the point now that the main story was complete. Why did Ubisoft think that making a game with so much stuff would be such a good idea? Personally, I’d rather play a shorter game with a fantastic story than a game with a shitload of stuff to pick up and so on just to reach 100%. Maybe if they had less side mission stuff, and a longer main game I’d like it more.

Things I liked about this game:

• You can upgrade Aiden’s skills
• I liked Bad Boy 17 and how it was a woman. She was very likeable. It’s too bad about the end, though.
• You can hack other players, or do “revenge hacking” which is to hack a player who hacked you first.
• The main story. I liked that, even though I was slightly confused the whole time.

Things I disliked about this game:

• The side missions didn’t seem to have anything to do with the main story, but more with Aiden helping the community stay safe. Half the time I didn’t care about most of the missions. Some where just too hard.
• Completing all side missions unlocked most of Aiden’s skills at the end of the “skill tree.”
• Most of the cars had shitty handling and took corners like they were made of ice, which made car chases really difficult. I learned quickly that the smaller cars with the white racing stripe were stickiest on turns.
•  I found it extremely difficult to care for the character, Aiden Pearce, because he felt so wooden.
• This game doesn’t have much for replayability. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be exchanging it at EB Games for a different game.

All in all I did enjoy myself in this game. Am I going to play this game again? Probably not. I’m glad I didn’t know about this game when it was announced at E3. I heard from friends Ubisoft hyped up their game trailer, and then the game didn’t live up to most gamers’ expectations. What I did hear is that Ubisoft is planning on making “radical” changes. I guess we’ll see.

My rating? I say 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Cheers.

Bitchin’ Gamer Girl