Star Wars Battlefront EA Game Review

Back when the game was announced I did shared my thoughts has to why Battlefront looked like a disappointment from the get go: many months have passed since then with many youtube reviewers giving their take on EA´s Battlefront, the hype for The Force Awakes has passed and now with a clean set of eyes I give my take on EA´s Battlefront... and I am so happy I didn´t expended a single dime on this at lunch because it is a true slap in the face not only to Star Wars fans but to players all over the world.

First a little history: When Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012, Electronic Arts rush is to acquire the rights to develop Star Wars video games and their licence was given for a total of 10 years (a pretty long time indeed), when this news reached me I knew they were going to develop a Battlefront game with DICE, the same people behind Battlefield; It was just common logic... Battlefield games are very popular among many so of course the cries of people for a new Battlefront practically ensured the eventually existence of the game.

And of course later on E3 we got a teaser trailer for a brand new Battlefront game... all I could think of was "I knew it". I knew I wasn´t going to buy this game and while many people got exited they seem to forget that not only this is the modern gaming industry where games are purposefully lunched with serious lack of content and out right broken but the the publisher behind it is Electronic Arts, the corporate beast that´s always looking to gauge consumers with every new game release and responsible for pioneering Day One DLC via pre-orders...  oh yeah the future of Star Wars games is looking very bright now huh?

I didn´t play this game at release since I refused to purchased an incomplete game with a 50$ season pass... making me pay for a whole other game just to get everything is offensive, but I´ll talk about this later how is the actual game... well there is no single player at all, so there is no story mode, galactic conquest, no regular bot matches no interesting use of maps or meaningful single player tasks. For people like me who enjoy taking it easy with a video game by myself this just isn´t the game I am looking for... this could have been somewhat easily fixed by giving us the option to play multiplayer matches offline against bot; I know many people argue that DICE should have included a campaign mode but I don´t think that would have helped anything because in a shooter like this campaign would´t have helped with replayability of the game.

For off line there due indeed are some modes to play:

-Training: is basically mini-misions that you can easily complete in 4 to 7 minutes.

-Battles: is basic generic matches against AI opponents or another player where you take them out and collect their fallen tokens, collect 100 and you win. You can also play has a hero against against the AI or another player and is the same basic rules only here you can be Luke Skywalker swinging a lightsaber.

-Survival: it is what it sounds like; you endure wave after wave of imperial soldiers coming after you until the game stops, I like this mode but it gets really boring and repetitive quickly... they could have made this mode much more interesting if they let you play has a hero or use vehicles but instead you just go on-foot at all times and occasionally protect drop pods against imperial forces.

There really isn´t much to say about single player, say you want to play Battlefront but for whatever reason your internet connection doesn´t work... well does modes are all you get you can easily complete the whole thing in less than 1 hour if you power through it.

Obviously EA and DICE want us to focus on the multiplayer... what do we get? meh... some fun game modes here and there, some alright modes and some modes you play once and never tough again.

I´ll go through them one by one:

-Walker Assault: This is the flagship mode of Battlefront EA, the one mode they use to sell us the game (the one we played on the beta, the one showed at the E3 demo, etc...). The Empire must protect the AT-AT through the battlefield while the Rebels try to take it down by calling Y-Wing support, it´s fun I´ll admit... however I don´t find it has fun after a while: it gets boring fast after just a couple of matches there are very few maps, granted thanks to a couple of patches that number has increased but I am sure that wasn´t the case at lunch.

-Supremacy: This is my favourite mode out of all the massive modes in the game, is all about capturing control points while pushing back the enemy... there are heroes fighting around, ships fighting above in the sky, etc... is pure all out warfare and it is very Star Wars indeed. Unfortunately unbalances ruin this mode, the empire can summon AT-ST´s and just wreck rebels left and right while the rebels don´t really have a way to counter the war-machines, this could have been easily fixed by giving the rebel players some form of ground vehicle like a tank but no because apparently it "isn´t cannon".

-Turning Point: This mode was included with the Battle of Jakku DLC (it is free though so that´s cool), where imperials must defend check points while rebels push them back, it is indeed similar to Supremacy but this time imperials don´t push forward... they only endure the rebel push, it gets really hard to hold the line at first but the last check point and is only one so it makes it a mouse trap for any player trapped in the middle no matter the side, it is incredibly hard for rebels to win the last check point though. It´s a harmless mode I guess but nothing special either

-Drop Zone: This mode is like "King of the Hill", supply pods are dropped into the battlefield so rebels and imperials must secure the pods from the opposing team, it´s alright but nothing special.

-Blast: Traditional team death match... nothing else to say...

-Cargo: Traditional "capture the flag" mode, is what it is really... you pick up the enemy cargo while protecting yours.

-Droid run: Is a variation of "king of the hill" mode where teams must capture 3 Gonk droids before the enemy team does, unlike supply drop, the droids are always on the move so is not as easy to protect them.

-Heroes vs Villains: Is a moba style game where players take the roll of one of the 3 heroes of both sides and must defeat the others, it´s a lot of fun to play has one of the iconic heroes and trying to take down the opposition although I feel like the rebel heroes are slightly better than the imperial heroes... however to be fair there doe is a layer of strategy to the game has you can easily be wrecked if you go at it alone even if you are a hero so is not so simple.

-Hero Hunt: A player controls a hero and must fend off wave after wave of player controlled enemy soldiers for has long has they can until they are inevitably destroyed by another player and they become the hero... not really a super fun mode, specially if you can´t become the hero.

-Fighter Squadron: After you get pasted the meh flight controls this mode is alright... just wreck any star fighter of the opposing faction you can encounter and you´ll do fine, however the rebels are highly over powered and the empire dozen´t really have a way to counter this so the rebels always win, at least in my experience.

In the whole all the game modes have major glaring problems:

In game modes like Supremacy and Walker Assault, the hero token´s placement is completely unfair for new players, since the same people who become the hero can go on ridiculous kill streaks while never loosing, why? because the heroes never have a time limit, you must take down the hero character so the player can go back to become a regular enemy soldier, new players will almost never get the chance of becoming a hero character since is a power up that you have to pick up somewhere in the battlefield.

There is lack of weapon variety in the game, no classes for players to pick up, instead you make a load out of weapons a-la Call of Duty. You will see players using almost the same load out always and it gets boring really fast.

The way your avatar looks is completely out of control, you can´t select many generic looks until you level up to rank 20 or 30... I wanted to play has the Twi´Lek but the game is telling I need to level up to Rank 50 to play has her (the maximum level in the game BTW). Many developers seem to think that attaching an experience bar on multiplayer games immediately makes it exiting but I just don´t have the time in my hands to level up my character for multiplayer matches... why not just allow us to get this elements from the very get go? why make up play your game so much? is this the definition of fun for some people? This is really stupid.

There is no space battles at all, a mode included on Battlefront 2 is completely absent on Battlefront EA... even on fighter squadron there is no way to fight in space since it´s always on a planetary surface.

No Clone Wars... you only get to play on the Galactic Civil War, another big insult since this could have provided much more variety to the game modes with more unit customisation, weapon variety, heroes, villains and planets. The exclusion of the clone wars seems to me like a lazy executive movement to safe costs.

EA has been excusing themselves by saying that the lack of a single player campaign and modes is due to that kind of development being "too expensive" so they would rather put their efforts into only multiplayer... has it resulted on a better experience?

The biggest insult of them all is the cost of the season pass... 50$

It´s insane that the cost of a whole entire other game will get you a couple of new maps and locations, how can some people accept this is unbelievable to me, perhaps is because some of this kids a 13 to 15 year olds that get the game from their parents and money dosen´t hurt them. I made a post a while back about video games becoming a luxury because of how expensive they are; to cut this topic short, I know that game development now days has become increasingly more complex and difficult to make thus costing more to develop... but asking your consumers to drop 120$ for a single video game is a horrible practice.

...and EA then wonders why people call them a "corporate beast"...

Star Wars Battlefront EA is not good because it relies only on it´s multiplayer component and there is absolutely nothing to say about single player because it´s so barebones that is a joke on the people who like to enjoy a game by themselves offline. Nothing lasts forever, eventually PSN and Xbox LIVE has well has online servers for PC will go offline... who is going to play this game then?

Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 Game Review

So I´ve finally played through the main story and played pretty much every mode within the actual game, after much thought and playtime I feel I can safely say Ninja Storm 4 is the best of the series by far, improving many elements of the game even if there are some baffling choices that either don´t stick or hurt the game´s overall quality.

The story mode starts off pretty much where Storm 3 left off, except that I can´t help but feel that I missed something... like there is a part of the story that is just gone, I don´t know if it´s just me or maybe a section of Revolution or Generations that i missed by not playing them but it really hurt my immersion. The timeline of the story (or storyboard has they call it in the game) has a neat idea but it doesn´t go far enough with the concept, perhaps is due the fact that CyberConnect2 is sticking very closely to the manga but I don´t see why there can´t be more branching paths in the timeline.

The story itself is ok... it does go all the way to the end of the Naruto saga witch is the one thing CyberConnect2 has mentioned since the announcement and it does, however there is something about the way the story is told that just rubs me the wrong way and this has to do with my overall thoughts on the Naruto series in general; just to be quick... it seems to me like the story is making stuff up has it goes along, thus feeling long for unnecessary reasons but I then remember that Naruto´s main story is in the manga so the feeling of passage of time is much less easy to detect than in an anime aside from the fact that in mangas and comics the reader can take the story at their own rhythm. So because Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a video game the passing of the story is up to the creators and I don´t know who to blame for the way this story is presented: I could blame the team at CyberConnect2 for not telling the story well but I could also blame Masashi Kishimoto himself, for making this story feel more drowned out than necessary with elements clearly boing made up has it goes along or I could also blame myself for not reading the manga or watching the anime since I am sure many things about the story are cleared up there but the point of an adaptation is to have it stand out on it´s own with no need of external material...

Just like in previous Ninja Storm entries there are times where the player must partake in quick time events during fighting cutscenes, now unlike some people I don´t hate QTE´s, I feel like the developers can make them very interesting and relevant for the game experience if done right (example: the confrontation between Leon and Krauser in RE4, the QTE helps the player get into Leon´s place has he tries to keep up in a knife fight), Ninja Storm 4 allies it in a similar manner than the previous ones, it´s not necessary to succeed on every single one of them but I can´t say the general audience will like this element, all I can say about this QTE sequences is that is completely up to the player if they like them or not.

Ninja Storm 4 is mainly a fighting/brawler type of game in a 3D arena, the core game is still the same has in previous entries but this time it feels much more fluid because many of the same moves players could perform previously are not only slightly more easy but also allow much more mobility while in combat: basically substitutions are very easy to perform and is instant in contrast to how it was back in Storm 2, the chakra meter also depletes much faster specially if you are using a ninjutsu and even they added a counter-attack mechanic that is perfect to use after a substitution to incapacitate the opponent. The previous storm games also featured a vast cast of characters from the Naruto franchise and even though I haven´t played all of them I can tell there is a huge amount of characters in this roster (definitely more than in Storm 2 and 3 at least), although all of the characters have the same control scheme to perform combos and jutsus, pretty much every character has their own layout of play styles but there are still some imbalances between the characters like some ninjutsus are less effective than other´s witch hurts the balance of combat: this could have been easily solved by having every ninjutsu in the game deal the same amount of damage... I can understand if it´s a combo-like jutsu that gets interrupted but it´s not quite like that.

One thing that CyberConnect2 has always done very well is the cutscenes mostly the ones where there is heavy action and sometimes even some emotional scenes are very well animated: the character´s faces, movement and overall body language is very well done (from what I could gather all this animations are completely done by hand), has an animator I have to say is very impressive how stylish and detailed this cutscenes are, the team deserves to be commended by this.

The game also features plenty of modes for offline play:

-Normal VS matches against the AI or another player locally

-Survival mode were you battle endless opponents until you are defeated

-League that is basically a mini tournament with qualification style score

-Tournament mode with regular elimination brakets

-The adventure mode where you play has Naruto exploring the world and visiting different locations, doing side quests, etc...

What i can say about adventure mode is that is very lack lacklustre, there sure is a charm about just wandering around Konoha village with nothing bad happening but with only a few collectable items, side quest that usually revolve around helping a little kid find their missing cat and a few other light RPG style elements there isn´t really that much to keep you coming back after you are done with it.

You also collect in-game-money after every battle you win and depending on your rating at the end of the match you can multiply the overall revenue has well has collecting certain materials used to purchased special items in the store, it´s a good choice to have this material type of currency since money is easy to come by in the game, however a better way to balance this is by increasing the price of those special items since this could insight for more playthroughs to earn the amount desired for the player to obtain these collectables.

The online mode is what it is basically: like in any fighting game you have regular online matches against other people, ranked matches, etc... however the connection online is awful, even when both players have good connection it´s still jacked, there due are bonus for logging in daily for materials and certain online events where you battle rounds of AI opponents under certain conditions, it´s fun but just not enough to keep my interest.

Acording to CyberConnect2 this entry is the last in the series... and I hope so because in my opinion Naruto should have ended a good while ago, with the story in this entry reaching to the very end on the Shippuden timeline maybe it is a good place to stop altogether at least for a while. Overall: I do am glad I bought this game, it has its flaws and it could have been better but it really feels like a vast improvement over what I played from the previous entries... I cannot recommend this game to regular casuals unless you are a die hard naruto fan or if you are like me and enjoy the naruto franchise has a regular anime viewer.

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Thank you for reading:

The next game I plan to review is Star Wars Battlefront... I have been able to get it borrowed from a friend and I intent to dissect this game has best I can, I know it is kinda late to review this game but I don´t look to analyse video games by how new of old they are.

I´ve also starter a Tumblr page here and of course I due plan to keep it updated, since I haven´t posted anything related to my current project this tumblr site will be addicted fully to that.

Thank you again for checking in and stay tuned for more

Thoughts on Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 and the Storm series

At the point of this post I haven´t finished the story mode yet nor have I been playing it that much either, but basically what I want here is to get my thoughts out on the general Ninja Storm series.

The Naruto franchise is one that I have a wicked love and hate relationship with... 

I like the characters but i hate their portrayal...

i like the story but i hate the way it´s presented...

I like the fighting but I hate how drowned out they eventually get... 

So yeah; I indeed have very polarising thought on the Naruto series. I haven´t been fully able to get into the anime because of the tedious filler episodes and I haven´t read the manga because I haven´t been able to find the time or the will to read it... I guess is one of those things where I have to get into it fully specially when you consider how long the actual story is, but I do have been fortunate enough to play some good Naruto games.

The first game Naruto game I played was Naruto Clash of Ninja 2 for the gamecube (yep it was that long ago), I loved it back then and I wasn´t even into the anime either I just enjoyed the fighting mechanics and the overall game content... the story mode was good at introducing me into the mood of the series has a whole (the fact it was presented with cards was also stupid for the cutscenes), I like it but I am not fully invested into the world. When it comes to the Ninja Storm series I started with second entry, played through the entirety of Storm 3 and skipped Generations and Revolutions... To not make this much longer than it should, let´s just say that these games have never been that good in the fighting department, i´ll admit i really enjoy them but gameplay wise it had issues, the "substitution" wasn´t well incorporated has an evasion mechanic, the combos though easy to perform and simple to understand always has very easy exploitable characteristics etc.

For what I have played of Storm 4 it seems like a vast improvement over everything I´ve just mentioned... I want to go into further detail has to how it is but again I need more time with the game to fully gather my thoughts.

I promise the review for Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 is coming so stay tuned!

Hikiko-San Movie "Review"?

Since this is the month of love (A complete unknown concept for me), how about we look at a horror story? That´s right, instead of contaminating the gene pool how about I show you a horror movie based on a Japanese urban legend?

Hikiko-san has here story goes, is about a tormented school girl who was heated by her parents and bullied by her classmates... her soul was so tormented she now roams the world has a vengeful spirit or "oryo"  has it´s usually referred to in her homeland harming and tormenting any unfortunate human to come across here. The legend of Hikiko is not has popular has other oryo stories like that of Sadako Yamamura or Saeki Kayako but I think she has become kinda popular now days, specially with the new cross over versus movie recently by Hisaaki Nagaoka (witch I haven´t seen has of yet).

I didn´t knew about Hikiko until I ran across an animated movie of the same name, it was alright and if you want to check it out I will leave a link here, this movie however tells a slightly different story and if you haven´t seen it and plant to I won´t spoil it for you but let´s just say that if you investigate the story for yourself after seeing the movie you will probably be somewhat confused (I know I was).

I guess what I want is to give some more awareness towards this story, even though is not entirely original or even fascinating there is a special charm to this urban legend in and off itself; bullying is a big issue in many parts of the world and having an urban legend like that of Hikiko-san maybe speaks closer to a lot of people witch is kinda surprising to see this character not getting the same amount of attention has other fictional characters from movies or even creepy pastas...

Thought from playing Gravity Rush Remastered

A little while ago I decided to replay the remastered version of Gravity Rush for PS4, even though I have fully played it on the PSVita I still wanted to replay it on my TV with a controller in my hand, before I even start talking about my experience with the remaster there is a written review I did for the game on this blog... click here is you want to check it out.

I can say that before the release of the remaster, I wanted for the game to come out without any unnecessary gimmicks and it did... well sort of. Gravity Rush is a video game I am very fond of, back when I played it on Vita I never actually thought they would re-release it for PS4 but I am so glad they did because I know not many people have actually tried it because it was limited to a console not many people actually owned so of course it was a shame to see it go by unnoticed, I know Gravity Rush gathered quite a fallowing after it´s release (there even were people who bought a vita just of this game).

Pretty much everything I could have said about Gravity Rush I already did on my written review, however playing through it again this week I got some things to say about it, the "gamefeel"... you are probably wandering what is gamefeel; this is basically the enjoyment of the experience and if what the player is doing feels right to the correct degrees. Its important to talk about gamefeel because not many people who talk about video games use it in their language but this is has important has talking about game mechanics or visuals and that is very important indeed but gamefeel also is: When you play a game, you ask yourself if what you are doing is "fun"? If you are enjoying the actions you partake in? Do you want to keep doing what you are doing? That sensation is gamefeel.

The footage I am showing is me playing through the infernal pathway (I edited it a bit to avoid major spoilers), the player can make Kat do all sort of acrobatic gravitational actions from sliding to fighting and the correct use of this mechanics in action done right by the player can get the gamefeel that Kat is an acrobatic master. Gravity Rush Remastered also highlights much better the music, back when I played it for the vita I hardly noticed the game´s great soundtrack... has someone who usually plays video games with headphones I could notice the music and encourage me to play further in, in a way it´s kinda inspiring:

The composer is Kohei Tanaka, who´s work extends from anime (like One Pice and Dragon Ball Z) to movies and other video games, I am not much of a music expert but this men it´s great at making a mixture of different instruments and styles that makes some interesting sounding melodies.

Gravity Rush still holds up, not everything since I do feel like the city isn´t has lively has it could be and the story while interesting is not really grabbing me has I wanted it to, but it still has great things in it and it is one I can still enjoy today... I would recommend it now that it´s available for PS4, it plays much better than in Vita no doubt.

If you need a gravitational rush in your life then by all means check it out... I know I did.

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Hello guys I am so sorry for the lack of content, but a little over a week ago tragedy struck my computer and now I am trying to find someone who can save my data from the hard drive, it´s been hell, aside from that I want to start doing this kind of works on video form; I plan to re-review The Force Awakes when it lunches on Blue-Ray since there are a lot of things I want to share with you

Thank you again for checking in and stay tuned!