A Video Game History Untold

This one is for the video game illiterate.  I'm in a mood for childhood memories.....it's less creepy than it actually is I promise.

A History of my Childhood (Roughly)

Now I'm not going to do a timeline, I'm no history major and I don't intend to be.  Okay maybe I'm just lazy but judgement is the first to go when you procrastinate as much as I do.

When I was I wee chap, I did what most kids do.  I Played outside, ate too much junk food, and hung out with friends, but these didn't come to affect my gaming lifestyle until I got much older.  As I grew older, outside became a release from stressful gaming, junk food became my fuel to continue gaming, and friends became a reason to play games together.  However, as a kid, my reasons were much simpler.

As kids, we don't realize all the things we do are to  exhaust us.  School, organized sports, and eating enough broccoli to take out a large elephant are all meant to exhaust us til our next bedtime.  In the meantime, our imaginations run free but not energy to live those dreams.  Dreams of dragons, Tasmanian devil's, and other magical heroes are to be dreamed of another day.  However, something changed as I grew, and maybe you as well, as we began to understand what exactly video games did.  They reached where I couldn't, and brought to life something impossible.

Congratulations, You're a Nerd

Now before you intend to tune me out, which I sense you may have already, I don't accept that the term "Nerd."  Let me explain.....If I takea game everyone in America likes, for example football, and call it an expensive version of catch, then it doesn't do much justice to something that has history and complex detailing.  The only difference from any sports fan watching on TV from me is that they can't control their frustrations by improving their savvy.  No matter what they do as a fan, it doesn't affect the game.  No matter how much you know, no matter how good you are at fantasy football, you don't affect the game.. That shit is deep......or the world's most sarcastic metaphor.

I never knew I was going to be classified as a "Nerd" as a kid, I just thought the weight I gained was me building a protective layer or blubber for the winter like a walrus.  When I was a kid I was just having fun, escaping from the harsh realities of life I couldn't control.  Without going into it, imagine that sad moment in the movie Boy in the Striped Pajamas and that will emulate the sadness.  As I grew up, video games became something deplorable to the popular bunch, but it remained a fun escape from the daily routine.  Though I could control the things that happened in my life, video games became which expanded my thinking as well as my imagination.

My First True Game - RAYMAN

As a kid, it doesn't take much to be a superhero in a game.  Just being able to beat scary or creepy looking bad guys is often enough. Rayman was simply unique because the hero had no limbs, a floating torso with a frat-guy hairdo and mickey mouse gloves to match his running shoes.  He tied it all in literally with his ascot that had no purpose, lacking a neck.  The story was also simple.  Some evil caped evil trapped all your friends, and you aim to free them.  

There was one aspect of this game that was different than anything else when I picked up a PlayStation (Not literally that would be ridiculous).  Playing in my deemed guest room at my grandparent's house, I discovered something from a game that no adult could offer.  The game challenged me.  Not for their own benefit and not to satisfy its own intentions, but for fun.  Rayman does not treat you like you are a child, but someone who learns and adapts and paces greatly unanticipated.

Last of Us...More of Them

 So this week is a bit of a re-hash from a previous review I had on a game, but I think this game is definitely worth it.  The main reason I bring it up is because it's re-release coming to our late and great Ps4 consoles everywhere.....for 59.99

Previously on LinkInGaming...

The Last of Us - My first Impression upon release
20 years after the Pandemic the world is no longer ruled by men. Joel, The main character in Last of Us, comes off as a disgruntled man who loses someone very close to him in midst of the outbreak.  While the monsters do not appear like zombies, they possess enough ferocity and cause a wide spread pandemic to overturn cities to their natural state of spore infected vegetation.  I liked this in the movie “I am Legend”  because a city like New York was turned over to a grasslands environment.  However, like most movies, the goal isn’t my concern.  Whether or not someone succeeds in their goal in these movies, we honestly do not care.  From the beginning we put ourselves in the mindset that millions of zombies do not just get eradicated easily and even if a vaccine is found, there is always a rough and long road ahead.  We care for the people involved because we consider ourselves to be the ones who survives.  We care about the little girl at his side survives.  Everything he does is for her. Survival in Last of Us becomes an emotional toll as well as a physical one.

I knew so little back then, this game became so much more.  Now I don't want to blow anything but if you don't know by now then you aren't a real gamer so take that.  You need ice for that burn??? No? Okay...

Highlights (Spoilers AHEAD)

Joel is a single father with a sweet little daughter.  She got a gift for him, it was his birthday.  Typical father to forget his own birthday.  He loves his daughter and they are quite the team, playing jokes on each other and laughing.  However, we are only left to assume because of the impending doom that follows.  While trying to escape the city from what we can assume are zombies, they are approached by the military, given the orders to shoot on sight, anyone or anything they come across, fearing the infected were coming.  Shield your eyes children....

These buggers have no sight obviously but hear by a series of clicks which makes for me peeing my pants.  Joel is grazed in the escape, nothing major....His daughter, not so much.  She bleeds out in his arms.  His brother Tommy barely saves him by shooting the soldier down.  This is just the first 10 minutes.

20 Years pass and Joel is a different man, with an intense beard, Duck Dynasty style.  He's become a smuggler in the apocalypse, taking weapons past a overrun society.  The only form of government is a military-based one, "curing" all "infected" with a bullet to the brain, no matter the circumstances.  They call themselves the fireflies, no relation to the insect they're just yellow.  The resistance does what they always love to do, crochet.....and fight the government.  Joel comes into play when his friend, who is actually part of the resistance, asks him to transport not weapons, as per usual, but a person, a little girl named Ellie.  Instantly we can see how that brings up bad memories.

  Joel needs to transport her to scientists who could find a cure from her blood, but he doesn't realize this until it's too late that there is no going back.  She has been bit but does not change into our flesh eating friends.  On their journey, Joel becomes not only the protector of Ellie, but essentially her father, mentoring her and caring for her along the way.  He teacher her things no father should, including killing a greater enemy than zombies.  He fights the fireflies, random new types of zombies who all have different aspects that center around their infectious plant-like spore abilities, and the not-so-awesome cannibals.

Re-Release
While I expected this to happen, Last of Us re-release is definitely a surprise to me because it's so soon.  Typically games wait a while before they're recreated and remade, similar to movies.  Naughty Dog, the developing company, told gaming news that they would spend their time on the next game in the Drake's series which makes me think Sony is desperate to keep sales going while they can.  All marketing techniques aside, I wont take the extra time to tell you how excited I am about its release......Just kidding I love to do that.  The game makes you feel every emotion on the pallet and I love the zombie apocalypse, aside from the whole dying part.

Rating: 5/5 Story 4/5 Multiplayer 
Pros: Zombie killing, Weapon crafting, Survival techniques
Cons: Lack of Co-operative play but a completely co-operative storyline which is confusing.  Though the online multiplayer makes up for it greatly. 

Evolve: How to Cower with Friends and Face Alien-People

Evolve: A First Look

I’m just about finished with Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and I have to say all this revenge and revolution has me in the mood…For Aliens!

In one of my group ramblings I came upon a new game for all you gamers out there, save for weary catholic or two.  Evolve, an upcoming multiplayer shooter/monster simulator.  The title commands you to do exactly that: evolve or go extinct.  Evolving, thought, is not an easy thing.  You have to die a thousand times and adapt to harsh circumstances, which takes longer than any game can fit on a single disc.  However, the alien is saved from this rule by being able to evolve like a mutated Maguire.  But what’s the point of being a vicious fire-breathing alien monster?  As if being an alien wasn’t enough, there are pesky humans on the attack (or on the defense depending on your moral choosing as a potential misunderstood Godzilla).  I can tell you one thing: they don’t speak alien.  This is not to cloud your intentions as a human, because I doubt this is a picture of a bambii-esque character:

For Every Force, There is an Equal and Opposing Force

As if playing our alien Chupacabra wasn’t enough, we have our opposing enemies or heroes (depending on your racial status of human or alien).  Not to discriminate, but I think the alien is the enemy, considering the whole fire-breathing thing.  Maybe they’re just misunderstood, poor things. Anyway, we are introduced now to our quartet of heroes, all who complement each other’s hunting abilities.  These four definitely put any hunter to shame:

You can presumably think what these four are out to do……

Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Now I know what you’re thinking, this is an easy fight.  4 v 1?  WRONG!  Sorry, I don’t mean to yell, but the strongest point I can argue is that the alien-monster-godzilla is a wrecking-ball of a character.  As the monster, you evolve as you gather your regular proteins: eggs, turkey, and dinosaurs.  One of those doesn’t fit.  Imagine yourself in the shoes of this terrifying monster.  You’re hungry, powerful, and you don’t like humans (or any other living thing for that matter).  As you drink your dinosaur-milk, you will slowly get stronger, bigger, and gain more abilities to fuel your hard shell of alien armor.  End-game, you will be just about the size of a skyscraper, so our heroes definitely have their work cut out for them.

So What Do You Think Shawn?  Please Tell Us...

I know you’re dying to know so I’ll tell you.  This game has a little bit of a Left for Dead feel (I’d hope so since it came from the same studio).  Basically, this operates similarly to Left for Dead, except the enemy isn’t zombies but one large monster.  However, like the zombie apocalypse, you will have to work together because you aren’t Michonne (Little gem for you Walking Dead Fans).  This game also puts any first person shooter to shame with its graphics.  The highly detailed nature is both flowing and effervescent, and the dinosaurs that populate the jungle are both scary and realistic.  Unlike our recent release, Titanfall, it’s not just Call of Duty with Robots: it’s Darwin’s theory of Evolution in the barrel of a gun.

So what do you think gamers?  You excited for this game yet?  If not, watch Prometheus to have your mind blown enough to make you want to kill aliens.

Rating (Pre-Release): 4.5/5

Pros:

Team-Based Gameplay/Lone-Wolf Alien – This will attract our tactical players as well as our button-smashing kids.  Though to play the alien, you will need skill

Classes! – I personally love when any game includes classes.  This makes the game more tailored to your liking so you can choose the type of hero you play.  I’ll play the cliché female sniper because the smaller hit-box of course….

It’s Not a Sequel – Do I have to say it?  After buying 10 Call of Duty games and spending my life savings on Sports games every year/three times a year….I’m glad this game plays a new story that can’t be copied

Co-Op – Hopefully this game will allow you to play at home so we can have more multiplayer games.  I have two controllers and I’ve used them only to cycle to the next controller when my battery runs out.

Cons:

Balancing ­– I can definitely see upcoming problems with balancing.  Because abilities, powers, guns, etc. can be abused to win games with an unfair advantage, I worry that there will have to be constant patch update as frequent as Minecraft.  This is only a small problem though; I’m more personally worried that multi-player online won’t be as fun as playing with your friends

Infamous: Second Son

What's your favorite anti-drug advocacy campaign?....Truth or D.A.R.E?

So I'm slowly picking up this game I've been extremely excited for, Infamous: Second Son.  I played the first one ages ago as messenger Cole Mcgrath and could not have had my mind blown any greater by the ending of the story.  As Cole, you control matter and electrify all enemies, and the occasional accidental civilian, to find out how to defeat those who "cursed" you with this power all while becoming the hero the city needs or the hero the city deserves....haha. In essence, this new Ps4 exclusive game has maintained that idea.  However, the comic relief is no longer your best friend but yourself, comically commenting on your own"curse" as awesome and a bad smoking habit.  With this comes the first major difference, Smoke.  Unlike our electrifying predecessor, our new hero smokes his enemies with a heaping helping of cancer, making the Truth Campaign's worst nightmare.  Also, superpowers aren't awesome?  From the start of the game you're given a choice: good or bad (duh). But the game essentially chooses for you unless you're just inherently evil or you despise the elderly.  The game essentially reminds you that murdering is still bad in a world where superpowers exist.

Akomish?   Is that like the Amish?

Maybe it's just to give our hero to have a permanent tan or maybe it's cause Native Americans have secretly wanted superpowers to overthrow government, but I find it very odd they choose Natives for this particular story.  Our hero Delsin has a typical family, a loving grandmother who runs a lodging house and an pessimistic brother cop to care for and arrest him because they're both orphans.....Okay so not the typical family.  Delsin's brother immediately comes off to me as someone with "Disappointed Father Syndrome".  His DFS constantly spurs him to criticize his brother for his mischievous ways.  But in all honesty, Delsin is only making the best of his situation by learning to control and effectively use his newly gained superpowers rather than denying it and rejecting his opportunity to make a difference in his life.  It seems very backwards but it's all building up to our reluctant/emerging hero.

"Okay I'll go, you stay here.  And..." (Mimics) "DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING"....."I'm going to touch everything...."

Should I Spend 80$ on this?

Well for the Beanie and the Buttons that come with it, of course.  All story aside, the combat is very interesting and flowing.  You earn your combat abilities with great ease and there is always a clear objective.  The game isn't as smart as some others, you will be seeing that typical boring tutorial to press L2 to smash better a lot, but it's forgiven when all are not available from the start.  Because you gain your powers by absorbing abilities like a Shamwow, the game introduces new abilities as you yourself grow, which almost doesn't necessitate there be upgrades when you get a new power each mission.  Upgrades simply make your game experience slightly unique rather than monumentally different.  Side missions are simple in the open world, which is a nice refresher from the previous game, and most of them are quite fun.  However, the one draw back is that all enemies, missions, etc are blips on your GPS, making it ultimately confusing.  Drug busts and spray challenges are neat little combat events and a little bit of Ps4 flexing its new controller muscle by allowing you to actually shake the controller and spray it like you're actually holding a spray can.  However, there are some easily seen drawbacks with the combat that I can immediately see, not in Delsin himself, but in the combat environment.  In order to fight effectively you need to have smoke which you gather through your fingers from nearby smoke from explosions or "ammo crates" which are just exploded fuel.  However, these come sparingly and thus it is very easy to die without maintaining a strong distance.  In addition, it is quite obvious that all computer enemies you face have an auto-aim which gives little flexibility to actually avoid bullets or large concrete blasts.  Let me also take a moment to question how out of all the possible superpowers a villain could have, that they chose concrete to be even the top 5......it's original I guess.  The most basic combat which is basically a fiery chain is to be rarely used, while projectile heavy blasts are also shunned because they cost too much smoke. 

What keeps me playing is honestly the nostalgia.  The first game I truly loved the story and this one is not disappointing me yet because it's the classic story of love and super-powered revolution....well my version of a classic anyway.  From the moment you see the villain, you are rallied against her and the D.U.P, which is essential if you want a gamer to essentially perform a virtual version of overthrowing governmental power.  Enemies aren't so difficult that they're just impossible, you simply need to upgrade the right abilities that work for you and learn the right way to face a mass of enemies.  The game does a great job of adding a little something every hour or so to add to your fun and the game allows you to go as far into it as you want to.  In reality you can just appreciate the scenery, climb buildings, destroy mobile bases and collect shards and move on.  It's as fun as you make it.  That's the best part about open-world games, you're not limited to a linear story.  You make a story....Got a little teary there...Give me a moment.


So what do You Think?
If we're Gonna Star this one (Out of 5) I'll List some Pros/Cons

Pros
Interesting Story
New Powers
Female Villain
Open World
Renewing Old Abilities

Cons
Concrete Power?
Stale/Robotic Climbing (Hover Jumping)
Unnecessary upgrades

A Second Opinion: http://www.ign.com/blogs/lavinavich/2014/03/26/infamous-second-son-impressions

Stars: 3.8/5