Video Game Tuesday: Giving up on Destiny

 

This week on Video Game Tuesday I’m explaining why I’m done with Destiny until it gets fixed properly.

My Issues With Destiny: The lack of Story isn’t a huge factor in me no longer playing Destiny, but it does affect it. The bigger issues are the fact that it has taken Bungie Eight Months to do more than admit that there are major issues with bugs, and they choose to only address one of them. Another of them is the fact that they seem hellbent on pushing their idea of their ideal fairness on everyone. If they weren’t expecting to deal with exploits, like pushing Atheon and Templar and Crota off edges to their doom, they were beyond stupid.

The fact that people have to resort to things like pulling their ethernet cord out to beat a boss easily is beyond stupid. That says something major about their design team, and it’s not a good thing. It means that the majority of players aren’t able to complete end game activities without resorting to a glitch of some sort. In fact certain fights are impossible without resorting to it. A good example is the Abyss section of Crota Hard Mode, by the end of the mad dash to the end 3-4 players of 6 will be dead and those left have to fend off hordes of enemies by themselves. The only way to survive through that is jump onto a certain rock to avoid 98% of the enemies and take out the only ones that can hurt them, Ogres, from a distance before they get in range and kill you in three seconds. The artificial difficulty added in the entirety of Hard Mode is beyond dumb as you will always get one shot from certain enemies, and if they catch you unaware for even a second while you are dealing with the hordes of Thralls you are going to die very quickly.

Another fault I’m sick of dealing with is the fact that RNG rules everything in the game, from the inventory of the weekly weekend vendor Xur to the drops from a standard PvP match in the crucible. I’m sick of seeing someone who didn’t participate at all get one of the best guns while I’ve been trying since day one to get one and still haven’t gotten it. By the way I find the statement of his inventory being totally random to be utter crap as the week he sold the Icebreaker most recently had every top tier exotic for every class and helmet engrams for sale as well as the Icebreaker. That is so statistically improbable that it just can’t be possible.

Another issue I had with Destiny is the fact that the new exotics all suck. Every single one is terrible, from the No Land Beyond to Necrochasm. Not a single one is worth using over older guns. These are supposed to be some of the best guns in the game, but they all are so terrible that no one wants to use them.

The last straw for me though was this last week’s update informing everyone that they were punishing players for using guns that are effective over using guns that aren’t as effective. I understand the desire to balance the game, but when that strays into affecting one part of the game (PvE) because of another part that has nothing to do with it (PvP), it becomes extremely frustrating to the players.

So I’m done with Destiny, until they fix their mistakes and stop pushing their ideals on us. Will I play House of Wolves, maybe. I might go through the raid once, do the story missions to see if they fix anything, but I’ve got no hopes that it will go well anymore.

I have moved onto greener pastures with the friends I’ve made from Destiny and I’m actually going to play a game that doesn’t feel like screwing with you every chance it gets.

 

Shoujo Saturday: Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP

 

This week I’m covering one of CLAMP’s most well known works! It’s Magic Knight Rayearth.

Plot Synopsis: Magic Knight Rayearth focuses on three eighth-grade girls: tomboyish and headstrong Hikaru Shidou (獅堂 光 Shidō Hikaru); the quick-tempered only child Umi Ryuuzaki (龍咲 海 Ryūzaki Umi); and intelligent Fuu Hououji (鳳凰寺 風 Hōōji Fū). While on a field trip to the Tokyo Tower with their respective schools, the girls find themselves drawn into another world, Cephiro. There they learn that Cephiro is influenced by one’s will and that the Pillar maintains Cephiro through prayer. The girls are then tasked with rescuing the current Pillar, Princess Emeraude, from her abductor, the high priest and antagonist Zagato, after which they will be returned to Tokyo.

Plot: The plot is fairly standard, but it’s got enough twists in it to make it very interesting if you keep reading it. I didn’t really get the ending of the series to be honest, but it was a good ending to me. The halfway point of the series was amazing though.

Art: The art in this series is very good, and I really enjoyed it.

Overall: If you like a great plot and good characters you’ll love this series.

For those who like: Great Plot, Good Characters, Magical Girls, Mecha.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above.

Video Game Tuesday: Bioshock Infinite

This week for Video Game Tuesday I thought I’d cover one of my favorite FPS games, Bioshock Infinite!

Plot Synopsis: Set in 1912, the game has protagonist, former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt, sent to the floating air city of Columbia to find a young woman, Elizabeth, who has been held captive there for most of her life.

Plot: It’s an amazing piece of work and I absolutely loved it from the first minutes of gameplay to the very end of the game. I can’t say anymore without spoiling anything.

Characters: The characters in Bioshock Infinite are amazing, Booker is a bad ass and Elizabeth might be my favorite person to escort in a game ever.

Gameplay: I generally don’t like FPS games, but this game was incredibly well done and I loved every moment of it, Special mention goes to the AI that Elizabeth uses because every game with AI partners should steal, I mean copy, the system that makes Elizabeth the best AI partner I’ve ever played with.

Music: Normally I don’t think of music in FPS games as being epic and heart pounding, but like everything else Bioshock does it surpasses every expectation and than some. I especially liked the quartet in the opening 20 minutes of the game who sings a Beach Boy’s song (It makes sense later on in the game).

Art: Amazing and I particularly loved how Elizabeth’s attire changes over the course of the game.

Overall: A must play game, the story in it is absolutely amazing and should be thoroughly enjoyed.

For those who like: Amazing story, Amazing AI (especially in your AI partner Elizabeth), Awesome art, shooters with a plot (something that CoD really hasn’t ever done well)

Not for those who like: Any of the above, or lack of Multiplayer this game is strictly a single player game, also gore this game has lots of it.

Video Game Tuesdays: Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII

First things first I haven’t finished the game yet, so I won’t be going over it’s plot as a main focus.

Plot Summary: Set 500 Years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII-2 Lightning is tasked by God, yes a literal god, to save as many souls as she can before the world ends in 13 days and he makes a new world for the souls she saves.  Plot Review: So far I just started the 9th day, so I haven’t beaten the game yet, I have however beaten all the main quests prior to the last day. So far I’ve enjoyed the plot thoroughly and its answering lots of my questions about what the hell happened at the end of 13-2.

Characters: Lots and lots of people bitch and moan about how Lightning is an emotional rock and don’t get any further than that in their reviews of the 2 previous games. There is a reason for Lightning acting the way she is and it’s because she had to grow up to be an adult for her younger sister when their parents died when they were kids. It happens all the time in the real world, people act like an emotional rock when that happens.  Yes Lightning is a kick ass first, be nice later sort of person; That is exactly why she is such a bad ass character in my opinion.

She’s fought figures she was brought up to believe were gods since childhood and has the emotional baggage to show for it. The fact that she was a soldier and probably was conditioned to show little emotion also is in keeping with the character. That said Lightning definitely shows some more emotion on screen this time around, at least when you are dealing with side quests. For some reason it seems a little off in the main quests, however I’m guessing thats a plot line I haven’t encountered yet in the game and will be properly explained later.

Gameplay: When I first started playing the in game time limit seemed very daunting, however after learning the ease with which you can stop time with Chronostasis, a power that costs 1 EP, I was able to finish all the Main quests by Day 4, 3 days before the first step up in difficulty for some bosses and every monster.

The Combat system is very difficult compared to the previous two entries in the series, where you could with the right Paradigms, literally hit a button and switch paradigms whenever you needed to and win every fight. It plays like a Rhythm game in the way that combat flows and you have to switch tempo depending on what type of weapon you are currently using and even the different elemental spells have different timings for getting increased damage. It looks simple, but it really isn’t and thats to the benefit of the game.

That said I had to choose to play on Easy difficulty at first, because some guy in translation screwed up royally when translating the difficulty modes. Easy is Normal, Normal is Hard, Hard is freaking Nightmarish. I got curbstomped by the first real battle on Normal Mode, thinking I could do it without the tutorials because hey I’d played the last two how hard could it be.

You play as Lightning and Lightning alone, you have no party and everything is going to be headed your way.

Music: As I find with nearly every JRPG, the music is wonderful. The battle theme is a redone version of the first 13’s battle theme and still has the rocking violins that make my blood pump faster every time I hear it.  Bonus: If you downloaded it in the first 14 days for free you can even change the voices to Japanese with English subbing. It’s pretty nice for when your dealing with Vanille, who I found to be really freaking annoying in the first game.

Overall: If you played 13 and 13-2 this game will most likely satisfy your need for closure. So far it’s satisfied mine, and I haven’t even gotten really far into the game.

For those who like: JRPG’s with an action battle system, decent plot, amazing music and visuals.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above or can’t deal with characters not showing much emotion cause they’ve been through literal hell and are so traumatically scarred from it.

Manga Monday: Until Death Do Us Part by Hiroshi Takashige

I love this series, mainly because the Male Protagonist is a modern day Zatoichi who kicks lots of ass, but the Plot is excellent as well and it even features a few crossovers with other manga that isn’t just a promotional thing it’s essential to the plot.

Plot Summary: Haruka Tōyama, a young girl, is kidnapped by agents of a company named EX-SOLID due to her precognition abilities. She quickly finds sanctuary with a man named Hijikata Mamoru, a blind swordsman, ex-kendoka and convict who is proficient in the use of a katana, and desperately runs him down in the street. Upon meeting, Haruka told Hijikita to protect her “Until Death Do Us Part.” Confirming the terms of the contract, Mamoru quickly dispatches the pursuers on her tail and took her in for protection.

Characters: Mamoru may be blind, but he definitely doesn’t let that stop him from dealing out swift justice with his sword that can cut through anything. This series includes crossover characters from Aegis in the Dark and Jesus, no not Jesus Christ, he’s called that because that’s what people say when they see his handiwork. It also has the main character from ALCBANE appear in a few chapters.

Art: Fantastic, it’s gritty and surreal and provides you with plenty of Gorn, usually of the poor schmucks that Mamoru is taking down.

Plot: Well done, without getting into it too much Haruka’s life sucks and she isn’t spared anything by Mamoru.

Overall: If you like action manga, but dislike how people never die in Shonen series typically this series is for you.

For those who like: Lots and lots of Gorn, Amazing Swordplay, intense plot and a thrilling ride.

Not for those who don’t like: Any of the above, but most of all if you can’t stand seeing blood in print DO NOT READ this.