It’s early afternoon here in North Carolina. LW called here around 8, so 6 his time. He said some of the estate money had trickled in. He told me he wanted to make a land purchase and get contractors in to build a chicken coop, a couple pigsties, and a cow pasture. I told him to go ahead with the purchases, and I would see him in a week.
He sounded shocked at that. When I asked him why, he said he didn’t expect me to return so soon. But the way he said it burned my ear a bit, and for a few moments I didn’t see him in my minds eye. I saw a greenish, drooling troll running across a bridge with an army bag stuffed with cash. And for the first time since I met LW, I wondered if he was on the level. Or was he taking me for a ride?
Then he asked me if I would be willing to sell calves. The price wouldn’t be better than adults, but if we managed to get 40 top quality heifers, and if they bred well, we would end up with 40 great cows. Quality breeders were more valuable in the long run. Maybe 8-10 years.
He warned me that the livestock would likely need to be fed by purchase. But next fall we would have grown all the crops needed to produce our own feed.
And finally he put a bug in my ear about cotton. It wouldn’t be of any benefit to the animals, but the current market was good, and we could use it as a cash crop. Maybe even ship some off by train for a premium price. The initial investment would be high, but he thought it would be a boon in the long game.
Then he signed off. He said a long day was just beginning.
Just now heard from LW. He said a local farmer just sold off his entire spread. Something about a grisly divorce. He would be willing to sell all his slurry to us on the cheap. Since I wanted to go as organic as possible to told LW to get it all.
On my trip to Iverstead, I walked up a winding path. I rounded a corner and a thief stopped me. He wore a hood and clothes, likely something he stole from someone else he tried to (or succeeded) shakedown for money. But his blood spoke to me, and I felt his confidence was shaky at best. He approached with a threat and asked me for all my money. I wondered if I could kill him. But I didn’t try. Instead I narrowed my eyes at him, fixed my jaw, and told him I didn’t have any money and it would be in his best interest to walk away.
He astonished me when he stammered and then agreed to just walk away. When he was out of sight, I smiled. It felt strange to smile. Then a question formed in my mind: was my powers of persuasion and seduction becoming stronger and more convincing? Would I soon be able to just talk my way into the homes and lives of others? Did I not have the appearance of a vampire? Aside from my pale skin, I didn’t know the answer to this curiosity.
Further along the path and uneasiness crashed over me like a way from an icy sea. I sensed a presence, something terribly dangerous. I advanced cautiously, hoping my more comprehensive powers would alert me before I stumbled into something (or someone) ferocious.
A guttural sound formed off in the distance. I saw the cave before I noticed the troll! Brown, aggressive, and extremely dangerous. I had heard stories about these creatures attacking wanderers. Feasting upon them and anything else that trespassed. I understood from tales they could regenerate their health, making them more formidable than other creatures in the wilds of Skyrim.
I idled for a moment and watched. It patrolled near the entrance of the cave. It often growled and hoped up and down with a flailing of the arms. Then in would skulk to the opposite end of the cave and repeat the display. I watched as a rabbit skittered too close and enraged the troll. It shuffled after the intruder. I took my cue and made a break for the river in the opposite direction. I scrambled into the water and stumbled over moss-slicked rocks and stones, falling face-first into the cold water.
I arrived in Iverstead to find a bear had invaded the village and most of the townsfolk were attacking it relentlessly, protecting their homes. I joined in and helped them dispatch the bear before heading for the inn for some rest. When I awoke I heard some conversation about a place called Treva’s Watch. A group of bandits had confiscated the outpost from a local. A man named Stalleo. He was seeking help to overthrow the thugs and would be willing to pay for any assistance. I wondered if he would be willing to pay with his life. I could tear his throat out and—
I shoved the thought away. But decided I would seek out this man and offer some help. If nothing else I would be able to sink my teeth into some bandits. They are, after all, relatively easy to manage as I learned in the Embershard Mine.
The mine is well-lit with torches. I take them down as I creep along. They will definitely expose me and make the prey more difficult to subdue and feast upon. A tripwire stretches across the ground, it will trigger a rock trap if I’m not careful. I skirt around it carefully.
The air is thick and cool. Damp and musty. Dust hangs in the air, sparkling from the flickering light of the torches. When I snuff out the torches, the dust recedes into the darkness of the cave as though it isn’t safe to be unexposed.
As I creep forward, i can hear voices. A discussion about the guard securing the door; the guard i already dispatched. They are bandits and their blood won’t be the most flavorful, but being cautious is more important right now. I don’t need to be exposed. Vampires aren’t the most welcome of creatures, even by the lowlife of Skyrim. I image fear is why vampires are so loathed.
I wait patiently, hungrily. The two men separate. This is beneficial as I can attack them individually. Although, I feel more and more powerful with every feeding, I am not confident I can take on more than one of the living. One of them walks down a lit corridor (I haven’t been able to remove all the torches), and the other lies on a bedroll. I advance on him.
Back outside in the daytime, I cringe against the sunlight. The heat and brightness saps my strength and energy. But it doesn’t feel as powerful a drain as before. The eight bandits inside the mine fully satisfied me, and one in particular (the archer) tasted sweet. There was something in her blood that seemed to speak to me. A few words floated along her blood, within her veins. Riften. The Thieves Guild.
I think I should attempt to join The Thieves Guild. If it actually exists. Ready access to homes, to people, to blood. They will know where people live. Yes, that would prove quite advantageous.
The bandits at Silent Moons Camp are no match for my growing power. I dispatch them rather easily. New forms of magic arise within me and I use it to take them down. I’m sneaky, quiet, and bloodthirsty. Somehow I can even will myself to be unseen. My mother used to say powerful mages could bend light and become invisible. Somehow I can do this. It is intoxicating. Enrapturing!
I leave the broken and battered and drained bodies behind and head for a walled city. I believe the community is Whiterun, the most well-known location in all of Skyrim. This is most likely because of it’s central location within the province. The mild weather and wide-open landscape is also a deciding factor.
Whiterun reminds me of home. I grew up in Northpoint. My father fished the Etheric Ocean and my mother was a trader (selling my father’s catch most of the time). Seven years ago they died at the hands of some thugs from Evermore. The bandits were hired by a rival fisherman. They stole everything not fastened down and torched the rest, including my parents. Only their teeth remained after the fire finally snuffed out. After that, I left. Not knowing where I was going, but wherever it was would be okay as long as it was a long way away.
Two guards stand on either side of the large doors. Their blood calls to me but I resist. I wonder if my control is accidental from recent feedings or if I can manage my thirst more now? They do not speak or stop me, and I’m allowed to enter unmolested.
Inside, a man and woman are having a heated discussion, and although I’m not close to them, I can hear each word. I approach just as the conversation ends. The man in Imperial armor asks me something random. His heartbeat is all I can clearly make out. It’s powerful and steady. He is a strong human. I answer his question without ever hearing it. My reply pleases him. I wonder if he can feel that I now have control. I watch as he walks away.
There are more heartbeats. All around me. Within me. The hunger begins to grow. A small bunkhouse to my left has three guards within. I don’t know how I feel this. I enter and feed on the two sleeping men. A third man sits, he’s the watchman. I need him. Want him. Want, want, want!
He suddenly stands, dazed, entranced. I take the risk and feed while he is unaware. Then, as starkly as he stood and offered himself to me, he sits back in his chair—none the wiser.
I leave and head directly to the guardhouse. I seem to know exactly where I’m headed. An unseen power guiding me along the cobblestone to where more guards slumber. I’m getting bolder.
I exit the cave. Outside the darkness seems to warm me. The rain lit upon my skin, but it isn’t cold as most rain within Skyrim. I only feel the wetness.
And there is also moisture around my mouth, drying on my chin. The hunger had taken control of me, and the dead bandit was just there…
I shake away the memory, partially from fear and repulsion. Fear of the enjoyment and warmth of the blood. Repulsed by the act itself. Am I now a vampire? A vampire!
I break out in a run. Somewhere. Anywhere. As far from the cave as quickly as possible. I am disoriented. Just go. Run!
Someone in the distance. A guard. Another cave. Fear engulfs me. But so does something else. Hunger.
After I killed the bandit, I feed. It’s an instinct now. I am a vampire. A VAMPIRE!
Revulsion overwhelms me again and I run. I need distance. But from what and to where? The more I leave my old life behind, the more my new life (as a vampire) begins. Still, I cannot help myself. My legs power themselves as though they are controlled of a different mind, body, or…force?
I see something in the distance. A tomb maybe? Draugr inhabit tombs. But there aren’t any draugr in this tomb. This one has living blood. And lots of it, beaconing me as I get closer. A need wells up deep within. I must feed again…
I regained consciousness slowly as if swimming up from a depth in dark, murky water. I’m confused, my memories no longer cohesive but a scattering of visions. I saw a man. Attractive and alluring. His eyes (a strange reddish hue?) seemed to have gripped me so powerfully and debilitatingly I couldn’t move nor resist. But did I want to? I felt no fear. Rather…curiosity? Was that it? Was I curios? And if so, why?
The cavern? cave? dungeon? was dark. A woman mumbled something I didn’t or couldn’t fully comprehend. I heard a sound behind me. A creaky, racketing sound. Fear had gripped me then.
I looked down and saw I was in new clothing. Gloves with sharp, pointed tips, a red gown, low cut, barely covered breasts, and dark boots.
Pain rippled through me and I felt a hunger unlike anything I had before. I smelled something I would place within death, maybe the stench of…draugrs? I’d heard stories of the bone-walkers as a child, but waved away the stories of them as tales to keep children away from the tombs and crypts.
The stone corridor was narrow with only one torch hung on the wall for light. I rounded the corner and saw a man. His skin was pale. He paced. A cage (torture chamber?) nestled against the opposite wall. Next to it appeared to be a dead female bandit. But why wasn’t she in the cage? Moreover, why was she here at all? Did she sneak in to steal? And if so, how did she get by the woman who was mumbling?
I approached the man. He said something that chilled me. I needed to get out. To escape! I took whatever I could and made a break for it.
Back into the cavern, I saw what appeared to be living skeletons. Not draugr, but actual skeletons standing and wandering around, making a creaking noise. Then woman saw me but didn’t accost me or attempt to keep me from leaving as I approached the exit to the cave. I”m felt certain it was a cave now.
I wondered if leaving would make me free. Or would I become a slave to something else? And if so, what?
First order of business: this character—Kylie—and her weaponry was created using mods available on Xbox 1 for Fallout 4. The character’s look, apparel, and weapons won’t be available on all platforms.
That being said, the Solar Canon is available for all platforms as it comes from the Creation Club. For anyone not familiar with the Creation Club, it’s a downloadable product available from Bethesda that works as a substitute for in-game microtransactions. The DLCs (I use the term loosely) are purchased with real money unless they’re specifically offered for free of a period of time.
As I mentioned in the video, I believe the writing is poorly executed. And I’m not sure the story itself is well articulated. A bit more time—and a proper editing—would have done wonders for this quest.
Overall, I don’t think this purchased content is worth your money, even if you’re a weapons hoarder. Wait for sale or free. There are enough base game weapons that are more than equal (several excelling) to this purchasable content.
On my very first playthrough of Fallout 4, I maxed my Charisma as soon as possible. Truth is I believed Charisma was the best attribute in Fallout 4. Thousands on hours later it still is essential for all my play throughs. Without good Charisma you possibly leave a lot of experience points on the table. I recently earned 100 XP for a Charisma check with a sniper build. That’s a huge amount. But anyway enough of my gaming history and onto the breakdown of the perks in the Charisma attribute.
Tier 1 is Cap Collector. If you aren’t building settlements this perk isn’t all that necessary. Although the first two ranks give you a significant price discount over any other option it’s true value is in the settlement building as you must have the first two ranks to build stores at settlements. The third rank, which grants you the ability to invest caps in shops is a pass. You’ll have plenty of shops built at each settlement to sell all you loot. If you aren’t building settlements and still want the caps, you’re better off investing two perks in Fortune Finder under the Luck attribute.
Black Widow/Lady Killer perk is Tier 2. If you’ve built a female character this is a more useful perk as there are more male enemies than female and the bonus damage is nice. But it isn’t world beating, either. By the end game when this perk shows its most usefulness in combat, your weapons will be plenty powerful enough. The other benefit come from Charisma checks as it’s easier to convince the opposite sex and the Intimidation perk is more successful. Perk points best allocated elsewhere.
The Tier 3 Lone Wanderer Perk is the premier perk under Charisma and one of the best perks in the game. Let’s face it, companions are stealth killers and at best are poor shots and have little use in combat, except an overhauled Codsworth or Ada, both of whom can be devastating in combat and have a high carry weight. With the Lone Wanderer Perk you get a significant boost to carry weight +100 with rank 2, outdoing Stongback by 50. At rank 3 you also inflict 25% more damage while taking 30% less damage. And with rank 4, with the Far Harbor DLC, you get an addition 25 action points, a good bonus for V.A.T.S. users. And if you need to carry more loot bring Dogmeat along as he doesn’t count against the Lone Wanderer perk.
Speaking of Dogmeat, the Attack Dog perk can be had at Tier 4. The perks sound good but they really aren’t worth the investment unless Dogmeat is integral to your play through. Holding an enemy, maybe crippling a limb, and causing bleed damage isn’t likely worth the perk points as there are far better damage multipliers available. Give these a pass unless Dogmeat is with for the entire play through.
Tier 5 brings Animal Friend into the mix. You can pacify, incite to attack, or give specific commands to animals of the Wasteland. Other than provide to comic relief by bringing in a bloatfly to cause chaos, these aren’t worth the points. Easier to just kill the animals and the raiders. Maybe a Beastemaster-style play through is worth it or building arenas but honestly it’s more gimmick than useful.
Local Leader at Tier 6 is primarily for settlement building. You’ll need both ranks to combine with Cap Collector to buildshops, it only one rank to create supply lines and be able to build workstations in every settlement, which is beneficial as you can stop anywhere to improve armor or weapons, cookfood or make chems negating the need to always go to Sanctuary or Red Rocket or the Castle.
Like to drink? Well, the Partyboy/girl perk at Tier 7 is for you. This is actually a great perk for a variety of builds, especially and melee character as you can get even more strength by consuming alcohol. Plus your Luck goes up, and if you’re running a low Intelligence build with the Idiot Savant Perk, you can imbibe before turning in quests to 8mprove the chance of your XP multiplier. It’s a high investment into Charisma but probably a worthy set of perks.
The Inspirational perk at Tier 8 is mostly a pass. Yes it prevents you from harming your companions and them from harming you, but are companions worththis very high investment in Charisma to get? Since you’re far better off with the Lone Wanderer Perk, I would say no. Unless you already have high Charisma adding points to get here and then take these perks isn’t a great option.
Tier 9 and 10 are essentially identical to Animal Friend only they apply to wasteland creatures and people. Now maybe having a pet deathclaw is your thing or having arena fights with humans, creatures, and animals is also your thing. Either way these aren't worth getting until later in the game for any reason other than role-playing. Of course I'm going to be hypocritical under the Intelligence attribute in the next post as it has an option just like these only for robots.
Being able to manipulate others and have them do your bidding can be a fun and entertaining option, but the real strength in Charisma is the ability to dig out additional information and earn XP while doing it. I mean it is equally fun to squeeze more caps out of the tightwad residents of Diamond City. And, of course, the settlement system isn't fully optimized without the appropriate Charisma perks to make it happen.
In the world of Fallout 4 many of the weapons available to the player have roots in the real world players inhabit. But before I get into these real-world counterparts of those in the fictional world of Fallout 4 let me make something perfectly clear: Fallout 4 is a video game. Period. End of story. In addition, I'm not going to get militant about Bethesda not portraying the firearms in Fallout 4 accurately to the real life versions. I'm merely going to point out a few minor flaws. In doing this there needs to be an understanding: assumptions will be made. If you, reader, can keep that in mind things will go a lot smoother. And lastly, I'm not going to get into the science fiction weapons or experimental weapons in the game. These posts will be solely about standard cap-and-ball firearms.
In real life I have many of the firearms represented in the Fallout 4 universe. I may not have the exact caliber, or more appropriately, cartridge of those offered in Fallout 4 but I have similar rifle “actions” as portrayed in the Commonwealth. For this post, I'll be focusing of the rifles. I'll save the pistols and handguns for another post. So we will be exploring bolt-action, lever-action, and semi-automatic versions of the game’s rifles and how they relate or compare to the actual versions I own.
For the purposes of this post, I'm going to use the .308 rifle as the baseline. In relation to Fallout 4, assumptions need to be made immediately as the game doesn't identify the exact .308 cartridge. So, I'll be going with the assumption the game refers to the .308 Winchester (there are several rifle cartridges with .308 as a prefix but none are as popular as the .308 Winchester), which is nearly identical to the 7.62 NATO or 7.62mmX51mm. To be clear the 7.62 NATO is not the same as the Handmade 7.62 you'll find in Nuka World but I'll get more into this a bit later. For now I'll focus on the .308 bolt-action rifle.
The .308 Winchester was released to the public in 1954, three years earlier than its cousin cartridge the 7.62 NATO would be adopted by the U.S. military. But that doesn't mean the .308 came before the NATO version. In the 1940s experiments had already begun to improve on the venerable.30-06 cartridge. So Frankford Arsenal began experimenting with a smaller .30 caliber cartridge—the .300 Savage and ended up with the 7.62 NATO, which was smaller than the .30-06 and nearly as powerful with light bullets. This adaptation led to a shorter action and lighter weapon. Now I mentioned the .308 Winchester and the 7.62 NATO where cousins but they're more like fraternal twins. I won't go into all details in this post. If you're interested in the differences post the question in the comments.
Now that I've thoroughly confused you, I'll get back to the game. The .308 is the first traditional bolt-action rifle you'll encounter in Fallout 4. I say traditional because pipe rifles are not traditional and won't be covered with any depth in these posts. Pipe rifles are more related to zip guns than true firearms and that's where I'll leave that. You can easily find a .308 bolt-action rifle, which will be more powerful than any other versions in the early stages of Fallout 4, at Walden Pond. One of the raiders nearest the sewer entrance will have a hunting rifle in .308. Not far from Walden Pond you may come across a broken section of highway with a few Gunners, one of which may have a full .308 sniper rifle.
So what about these snafus you're asking? Well, the first and most obvious snafu is the bolt handle on bolt-action rifles. For me, this was an obvious mistake or oversight and I'm leaning to oversight. Your character shoots right handed. Pistols, revolvers, rifles, sledgehammers, all weapons are active from a right handed person perspective. The trouble exists with the bolt handle being on the left side. I won't say this doesn't happen, but it's rare and typically seen with customized rifles, or left-handed models. This flaw or oversight also exists with both the lever-action and semi-automatic rifles. With the lever-action, the ammunition is fed in from the wrong side. For the semi-automatics the bolt handle is on the wrong side. I say this is an oversight because in Fallout New Vegas the lever-action loading gate is on the correct side. I suppose this could have been done on purpose to create a more immersive feel by watching the character perform more visualized actions, but I think it's a mistake by Bethesda.
Next I'll explore damage. In the Fallout 4 world the .308 is the least powerful of the non-semi-automatic rifles. Both the Handmade 7.62 and the .45-70 are more powerful, but this isn't true in the real world. As a reminder, I'm not including pipe guns that would include the .45 pipe revolver rifle. These errors go from bad to downright awful. Let's use the .50 caliber rifle as an example of downright awful. Again, we aren't given the actual nomenclature of the .50 caliber rifle, but assuming it’s related to real-world rifles, we can rightly guess it's the 50 BMG. I can assure you that all three of the smaller caliber rifles combined cannot match the power of the 50 BMG. But within the fantasy of the Fallout world the .50 sniper is only slightly more powerful than the .308. To me this is an egregious error, not as much as the power of the .44 revolver, though. I just need to remind myself that it is ONLY a game. I don't want to mire you down with all the ballistics within the post. So if you are interested, and prefer to see proof instead of just my world, then leave a question in the comments.
A small bit on the Handmade 7.62 and how it relates to the .308. Given what we know of the Handmade 7.62, it is safe to assume it’s based on the Alexander Kalashnikov rifle of 1947, aka AK-47. Another popular rifle using the same ammunition is the SKS. The 7.62mmX39mm doesn't share the same diameter projectile as the 7.62 NATO, although it still falls into the .30 caliber family. This is also a rather complicated section on real-world rifles and nomenclature so I'll save it for the comments. Inside a rifled barrel are lands and grooves. These lands and grooves are what provides the sealing surfaces and the twists as the projectile leaves the chamber, travels down the barrel, and exits the muzzle. The 7.62mm or .300 inches is the diameter of the lands in the barrel, whereas the groove diameter is 7.82mm or .308 inches. From this I can show you the difference with the 7.62X39. The projectile of the 7.62X39 is .312 inches. The lands of the barrel is still .300 but the grooves will be different at .312.
Now that this post has come to an end, I'm asking myself what it was actually about. So I feel your pain if you are asking the same question. That being said, I'll be doing a post of the handguns of Fallout 4 and where I feel things are off kilter.
When I first began playing Firewatch I wasn't sure it was going to keep my attention. The opening was filled with onscreen dialog similar to that of old soundless movies. And I nearly put the game away for a later date. And had it not been for its setting in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming I think I would've put it away. Boy am I glad I didn't. In fact the setting of a fictional area within Shoshone NF was what drew my interest to the game. Kinda like rooting for the home team even if you don't like the home team.
Firewatch is a first-person, story-driven mystery. It was developed by Campo Santo and published by Campo Santo and Panic. On February 9, 2016 is became available for Linux, Windows, OS X, and PS4. Later, in September 2016 Xbox One players were able to play.
You play as Henry, a man who is trying to avoid a difficult past relationship and start anew. Henry is a new fire lookout in a fictional setting in Wyoming. You engage in dialog with Delilah via radio. And it's in the dialog that the game shines. At times serious, mysterious, and sarcastic. But it is always engaging and easily holds the attention of the player. It's almost like a good mystery book in its depth of character and twists.
Fun Factor: Firewatch is certainly engaging enough as a story-driven game to keep the fun going. Even with limited gameplay the game is a wonderful getaway for several hours. FF is 8 of 10.
Replay Factor: Firewatch has plenty of dialog options to warrant a second or even third pass through. And a few secrets are hidden that I easily missed. The adoption of a turtle for example. Firewatch is almost completely devoid of wildlife, which is strange given its setting. RF is 7 of 10.
Story Factor: the story in Firewatch is wonderful, although a bit slow at the beginning. But this is attributed to the fashion of gameplay in the first ten minutes. Once beyond the long beginning reading the player must do the story is fascinating and enjoyable with fully relatable and well rounded characters. And the mystery itself has plenty of possibilities for gamer engagement. SF is 8 of 10.
Imagery Factor: now again I don't separate out the quality or even design of the imagery, rather I use the fully imagery immersion to make the determination in the score. Firewatch possess wonderful imagery, from the forest to shadows to darkness. IF is a 6 of 10.
Overall Factor: a summation of all the scores given against all the scores available. Firewatch scores a 29 of 40. Firewatch losses ground due to lack of forest sounds and minimal gameplay. With the addition of sounds and more complex puzzles, Firewatch could easily score a 35 of 40.
Firewatch is definitely a game to play. Even if you prefer high octane games like DOOM or Uncharted, the story in Firewatch is more than enough to keep you entertained for several hours on a rainy afternoon. It easily makes it into my top 5 games played this year.
(Firewatch gets 5 bonus points for mentioning actual towns and cities in Wyoming.)
I'm not even sure where to start with Dear Esther: Landmark Edition. Normally I would give a little background information followed by a breakdown of the game as I responded to it. The trouble with Dear Esther is it isn't much of a game in terms of gameplay. Quite honestly there isn't any gameplay—walk, zoom, and look is it. But there is one thing Dear Esther does well and I'll get to that in a moment.
Dear Esther was developed by The Chinese Room and published in 2008 as a free to play mod. Then republished in 2012 for PC and Mac and 2013 for Linux by The Chinese Room. And published by Curved Digital for PS4 and Xbox 1in 2016. It's a first-person, story-driven game. Sort of. At least in terms of story-driven.
Throughout the game a narrator appears and maps out the history of a killed spouse to the audience via letters written by the husband of the deceased. The letters loosely imply the character’s wife was killed in an auto accident, but it's soon muddled by some back story of other island inhabitants, and the drunk driver.
The story of the prior inhabitants and the death of the character’s wife soon becomes white noise, though. And I found it to have been disruptive more than inclusive, and the reason why is because of what the game does exceptionally.
Dear Esther: Landmark Edition is a visual orgasm. The images are so real and lifelike, and the environment so believable, I quickly found myself shivering with the gusts of wind, hunching my shoulders over against the sea spray, and the chill of the caves that are explored within the game. At one point you explore a wrecked and decayed ship. As you walk through you feel immersed in the ribs of the broken ship and the emptiness of its cavity.
Although the game had a completely immersive environment, I could easily see people putting the game down and never returning to it, and that's in spite of its incredibly short story (I finished the game in an hour and twenty minutes, which could've easily been an hour had I not stopped for screenshots).
I would be hard pressed to say the game has replay qualities. One time through is more than enough. So be sure to take all the screenshots the first time.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay, a blog dedicated to gaming. Ranging from first impressions to game reviews and a bunch of stuff in between. I’ll be sharing my first impressions of Life is Strange for the Xbox One.
I was browsing in Best Buy when I first came across this game. It might have even been mentioned by a friend but I can't recall for sure. Anyway, I grabbed the box and read the little blurb on the back. A young girl with the ability to rewind time. She saves someone and then must face the consequences of her actions. And this is throughout the game as each decision can affect the way things play out.
After an hour or so of play, I find myself more and more drawn into the game. There's a girl missing and a bunch of people connected to the girl, which leads to a huge suspect list. The more I play the more clues come to the surface. And, as one might expect, some of the potential perpetrators are simply too obvious for me to take as a serious suspect in the disappearance of a young art student. And there's an equal amount of suspects who are not obvious choices as kidnappers (and potentially murderers, although I don't know if the missing girl is dead yet) who I must take a closer look at.
The story is full of typical teenage drama surrounded by a mysterious disappearance and the introduction of an FNG (fucking new girl) not unlike many stories available we’ve all read about or watched in movies or television or even been an active participant.
Keep an eye out for my gameplay videos on YouTube as I unravel the mystery.
Welcome to LittleWatt Gameplay. I've now completed my first game since I began this blog. So that means it's time to write my first review. The review will be scaled from zero to ten in several categories. Here's some history of DOOM.
I line up the shot!
DOOM, a first-person shooter, was first released on December 10, 1993 by id Software. Although it wasn't the first, first-person shooter it did remake the genre with heavy violence and gore and 3D graphics to IBM-compatible computers. Do you all remember IBM-compatible computers? DOOM II: Hell on Earth was released in 1994, which was followed by addition releases from that same engine, and Final DOOM released in 1996. In 1997 DOOM 64 would be released followed by a several year hiatus. In 2004 a prequel of the first DOOM as released but with all new technology. All of the previous versions of DOOM would have secondary releases except Final DOOM. There are books, comics books, and a movie based on DOOM. All in all, a successful institution.
The newest version of the game, titled DOOM, was released on May 13, 2016. And that is what this review will be covering. I haven't played many first-person shooters so I won't have much history to compare DOOM and other games in the genre. This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version.
I'll be rating the game in different categories with a scale from 1 to 10.
Fun Factor: wow this game was a hoot. It moved quickly and the interest stayed up. And I stayed up late many nights playing the game. That being said, I'm scoring DOOM an 8 of 10.
Replay Factor: I often returned to previous missions to complete missed challenges, work on weapon mastery, or discover missed secrets. I found myself enjoying the game as much when I repeated a level as I did when I first played the level. I mean pulling a demon’s arms off under the influence of the Berserk power up or hacking a demon in half with a chainsaw never gets old. Again an 8 of 10.
Story Factor: I found rating this a bit more difficult. The story in DOOM is there and it's a good story. But the story isn't easy to follow with the multiple ways it unfolds. At times there was the magnificent demon voice narrating a story during the trips to hell. Other times Samuel Hayden told a story. But most of the story was developed with the Data Logs, which could easily be glossed over or ignored altogether. Understandably, DOOM is designed for high RPM fun and too much story would lug the engine, but at the same time I felt like the story needed to be more forced. Certainly the artifacts picked up in hell don't take away from the energy of the game. A similar design needed to be employed for the rest of the story. Say, for instance, Olivia tells the story of the demons and Hayden discusses Mars and the work done on Mars. For story factor DOOM receives a 6 of 10.
Imagery Factor: I considered breaking this category into several but chose against it since this category is rather subjective. Sure there are obvious differences in last generation console and current generation, and even current generation compared to PC games. So I felt it best to keep concepts like graphics and images and real life modeling and soundtrack in one category. For DOOM, the imagery factor is high—8 of 10. The soundtrack was perfect, high octane and aggressive, which fit exactly with DOOM. There are several sections in the game where the imagery was so life-like it can easily be passed off as real. The smoke and fire and explosive barrels are all images that appear real not game. And I could easily peruse my gameplay videos and literally take hundreds of incredible stills. Other things like Samuel Hayden's size was subtle imagery. And Olivia’s degradation in the game as she slowly fails to accomplish her promises. And several of the gruesome images in the game tell a subtle story. One of which we would expect when dealing with demons and hell.
Overall Factor: This is an accumulation of all the category ratings added together with category totals and averaged out. DOOM gets an above average score with a 7.5 of 10.
Last Minute Gripes: I didn't include this in the main review because it didn't play a significant enough part to be included. Although the game never locked up on me, it did have a glitch or bug or something in one level where the mission challenges weren't being recorded. This forced me to complete the mission and restart. Ultimately this didn't have a detrimental impact on my game goals and was only a minimal annoyance.
Welcome back to LittleWatt Gameplay. I hope you're enjoying my content. And as always leave a comment and subscribe. Now to get to the meat of this post.
I've thought for a bit about doing a giveaway and decided I would do a game giveaway—via gift card—and equal to a new game release for the month of August. Now before you think this is a total freebie there are rules you must follow to be entered.
During the month of August I'll be focusing my gameplay videos on Dying Light on PS4. I may release other videos but for this giveaway you must follow the rules I've written below for Dying Light.
Rule number one: You must be a subscriber to my YouTube channel—I will confirm you're a subscriber. Sorry guys and gals but that's part of why I'm doing a giveaway. Growing my channel is important to me.
Rule number two: You must leave a comment on every Dying Light video in August in the YouTube comment section about the video you just watched, comments not in YouTube will NOT be counted. And...I will be leaving a question within each video itself that you will need to answer as well. I may ask a follow-up question to assure you've watched the video and not just copied previous commenters’ remarks. Liking the video isn't required but it may add to your chances.
Yes, the rules are difficult and are designed that way on purpose. I want people who subscribe to be a part of my channel and not there just to add numbers.
The results will be tallied in September. For those who follow the rules your names will be written down on paper and drawn from a container by a different individual. And the winner will be announced by 14 September 2016.
Welcome back to LittleWatt Gameplay. This blog is dedicated to gaming topics I'm interested in as well as game reviews and Let's Play video content.
I'm going to start a series of blogs about upcoming games that I'm interested in and will likely be playing in the future. And for the first post I'm going to tackle No Man’s Sky.
The most interesting part about my curiosity for No Man's Sky is I'm not the kind of person who would ever consider space travel. I mean it's great and fascinating to learn and to see. But as for actual space travel...That's for someone else. You won't be finding me on Mars planting potatoes or on the Moon doing whatever they might do there. So the question becomes why, Glen, are you intrigued by this game?
I'm not sure I can even answer that coherently but I'll share a few thoughts anyway. But first a bit about No Man’s Sky.
No Man’s Sky is developed and produced by a small indie studio in the UK—Hello Games. Now they've developed and produced other games but I've not played any of them. The game is an exploration, survival, first-person game with 18 quintillion, ten to the eighteenth power, or 18 with with 18 zeros, planets. A staggering number. So basically you could play the game your entire life and never run into another player even though other players are there and may only be in the next star system. And in each one of these planets there is an ecosystem—if you don't know what an ecosystem is, well I can't help you—specific to that planet. Or the shorter version is infinite possibilities.
The scope of this game is staggering. Consider all the information people know about our own real life universe, which is around 4%, and now think about a completely unknown universe created in No Man’s Sky.
You can close your mouth now.
So yeah I'm ready to explore.
There's another facet to this game that will be relatively new to me as well. The open-world aspect. Nearly all of my gaming has been a linear style. Get your objective and accomplish said objective. Move onto another objective and finish that one. You get the picture.
So going from mostly structured objectives to you pick your path sorta thing will be quite different. And this is one reason I recently acquired Fallout 4, another open world game. But that's for another post.
Now on to the nerdy, real-life science part of why the game is so profoundly intriguing.
Space travel and humans in space. Space to humans is exceedingly dangerous. This is a major reason humans aren't on Mars currently. There's no guarantee they would survive the trip if it went perfectly. Solar radiation and cosmic radiation would surely kill them during the five month trip. And that doesn't take into account the trip back.
For life, Earth is a safe place, but Earth will apparently not appear in the game. But with 18,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets available an earth-like or nearly exact replica of earth is entirely possible. And let's face it, the game is based off earth-related physics and chemistry and knowledge, although the developers have added other elements, which could throw a monkey in the wrench.
But in No Man’s Sky we get to explore space safely from our homes. And that is the essence of video games. Although games aren't on the level of books, we do get to be someone else in another place or time or universe.
This is where you can find all my DOOM gameplay videos posted to YouTube. I've learned through trial and error and still have some tweaking before I like where I'm at with the videos. Please stay patient with me as I am learning the craft. Some of the videos are repeats as I moved up from the PS4 video capture to a capture device. I redid the second and third video in the series and renamed them with "episode" instead of "part." All the videos with now be titled with "episode" from now on.
Welcome back to LittleWatt Gameplay. I thought I would share a little gaming history. And hopefully you'll respond with a little gaming history of yourself too.
Although, I can't pinpoint exactly the first video game I played, I believe it was either Missile Control or Space Invaders, I can recall what system I played on. It was a Commodore 64.
After the Commodore 64 came the Atari. With games like Pac-Man and Q-bert and Asteroids. One button and one control stick. The games were so simple back then and I managed to find hours of entertainment. Now it takes an hour just to figure out all the controls and buttons.
I continued to improve consoles as they came out. The Super NES was one the entire family enjoyed with classics as Super Mario Bros and Duck Hunt to Tecmo Bowl and Mike Tyson’s Punch-out. I branched off and also bought a Sega Genesis. Sonic and Madden Football being favorites. I eventually upgraded my Sega with the 32-bit spaceship thingy. Not sure it did anything but look like it did something.
Of course the major change came with the PlayStation. It was a huge event and major leap in gaming. Black CDs and game storage. Of course CrashBandicoot and the Tomb Raider games. Madden Football was only to get bigger and bigger. Let's not forget Metal Gear Solid. It was one of the Tomb Raider games I participated in a co-op mode of sorts. I shared time playing the game with my sister. She did most of the work; I only relieved her when she got stuck and frustrated.
With the PS2 I shifted (pun intended) away from platform and puzzle games to racing simulation and racing games and football, both Madden and NCAAFootball. But not all racing games or all football games. I didn't branch out beyond the Gran Turismo series for simulators and I stayed with Need for Speed: Most Wanted. I simply didn't enjoy other racing games. And, admit it, Madden football has been the go-to football game. But way more than half of my game time was in Gran Turismo, and when GT4 came out, I spent hours upon hours racing. I completed all the races, some dozens of times, and all the side events. And to this day, I think GT4 was the best game in the series for putting time behind the wheel, which is something I have—a racing wheel. GT4 had the most laps and most races out of the box in the series. And if I had to pick what game I would love remastered for the PS4 it would be Gran Turismo 4. And racing is still a major part of my game time.
As for NFS: Most Wanted, I enjoyed the shit out of that game. I restarted the campaign over and over again. And I even co-oped a campaign with my little brother. He didn't have the racing skill so he did all the cop chases and I did all the races. And even though it was arcady racing there was a proper racing line and my hours playing GT3 and GT4 helped finding those lines. Unfortunately, the NFS series has yet to match the entertainment of the first Most Wanted.
When the PS3 came out, Gran Turismo 5 was a long wait, and that's when I returned to first-person shooter games with the iconic Resistance: Fall of Man as well as the uber-fun Motorstorm. But, I continued racing GT4 on the PS2, and once EA worked out all their Madden issues for the new PS3, I stuck with football.
Gran Turismo 5 was a big disappointment for me with the overall lack of laps and races available within the game. Everything was pushed to online play, which is something I don't do. I completed one race online, and just as I was making my move out of the slipstream, the racer in front slammed on his brakes and wrecked me. He refused to lose, and I refused to race against other humans again. And I still don't.
On to the PS4. I had the console for a year before, I actually bought a game for it. The console came with The Last of Us, a game I still haven't played. Slowly I added games to my library, hoping GranTurismo would be out, but here it is 2016, and no game yet.
Still, I collected games for the PS4 only to return to the PS3 again and again. What finally grabbed me was MLB The Show 15, a game I've put hours into. I played MVPBaseball years before and enjoyed it, but football was my game so it fizzled away. And MLB The Show has also slipped away with bug-filled MLB The Show 16.
But, things have picked up with the PS4 now. I spend lots of time on DOOM, and am anxious to start playing Dying Light, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, The Last of Us, and the Uncharted series.
So, that's where I'm at now. I intend on building a gaming PC to add to my PS4. And hopefully building my YouTube gameplay channel. Do me a favor and look me up on YouTube. Here's my latest video:
