Bloodborne - This will make me buy a PS4

By the people who made the souls games.... nuff said.

Destiny - XBOX ONE - Initial Impressions

Unfortunately I've only been able to put in a very small amount of time into this game the last couple nights.  But right away, I can tell you this game is very polished.  The controls are smooth and the graphics are amazing.  I'm only nit picking a bit, but the only things I don't like about the game is little bits of the UI, but that will just take some getting used to.  I also don't really like that they made the menus work like a mouse pointer instead of just being able to navigate menus directly with the analog stick versus the current system.  I look forward to diving further into it, and will definitely do a follow up post for a more indepth look at the game.

Update

It's been a while since I last made a post.  I have a few posts in mind, and will be writing them up in the next few weeks.  Hopefully pick back up with regular blogs with Tokyo Game Show coming up.

I've been watching a lot of competitive League of Legends and have been learning quite a lot about the game and hope to make a few posts in the future about that.

Also, Path of Exile has released a mini-expansion, and so far that has been really fun.  I really like how they keep changing things up which makes minor changes to the way the character progression goes in the game.  Will post more about that later as well.  Stay tuned!

Titanfall Beta - Thoughts

So Titanfall was available to try out last week, and I got a chance to play for a few hours.  It was quite fun and refreshing as a shooter.  Getting aboard your titan was quite fast and seemless, even when in the middle of a fire fight, and ejecting into the air is pretty cool.  Using this ejection at the right spots on maps allows you to reach higher areas, which I feel is a nice touch to the game as it adds that extra depth in the map.

The maps are fairly big in size if you are on foot, and I like how the titans can't access certain paths because of the map design.  This balances the gameplay and makes the titans not completely OP.  The maps also have a lot of height in them, to make use of all the wall walking and parkour you can do as a player.  The game also does a good job at dropping in bots to help fill the map so that you are not waiting around for players to show up.  Also, the spawn points seem to be fairly good, you are always near a bunch of friendly AI bots, or if your titan is ready, you can drop directly into the map as a titan.

I can't wait to see what the other titans feel like in game, and also all the extra guns, class customization that was not available in the beta.  I also wonder how many levels are there and if there's anything like a COD style prestige system.

In the beta, we got a taste of burn cards, which you can collect and choose to use in a match while you are waiting to respawn.  These burn cards give you some sort of boost in game for that life, ranging from being able to call your titan instantly, to bonus gun damage for a specific gun.  Having the choice to activate them or save them for later in the match opens up some strategic play, and if you have a full team, I'm pretty sure coordinating the usage of burn cards can make a huge difference in a match.

So does this game live up to all the hype?  From the beta alone, there is a good chance it will.  I say it is a must buy.

Diablo 3 ROS updates - Blizzard continues to disappoint

So there's been a couple of big posts on the battle.net forums, written by well known members of the community.  These posts revolve around the latest decisions of the development team and their attempts to fix issues that they did not foresee.  This came about when the developers pigeon holed themselves by doubling down on a critical design flaw of core game.  The whole concept of "damage = Main stat x weapon damage" is finally being seen as a poor design choice, and Blizzard had the perfect opportunity to address this issue with an expansion, but instead, they choose to cover it up with other "improvements".  It is good to see that there are more people out there that realize this and have stepped up to speak out about it to spread the word.

For those curious, here are some links.

Nubtro's post: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11306220847?page=10#185

Drothvader's post: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/11582608407

Why I'm not going to buy Reaper of Souls

So, as always, Blizzard is top notch when it comes to the art and animation of their games.  The crusader looks good, the moves look awesome and as always, the character model and moves are very well done.  I really enjoyed seeing their creative process when it came to polishing the character and the upcoming zones in Reaper of Souls.

When the panel switched to talking about "Loot 2.0" is where I started to really be disappointed.