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Top 10 Best Metal Songs of 2017
Now I know what you’re thinking:
“You don’t review music Raptor, what gives?”
Well, to put it simply, I’m a little disappointed with myself in the latter half of 2017, and I’m really wanting to get something out to you guy’s for the holiday season. And with that in mind, there’s nothing I love more than heavy metal music!
If you follow my twitter, you’ve probably seen some of my very snarky tweets at popular pop artists who, if you can’t tell, I’m personally not a fan of. So It always warms my cold blooded, reptilian heart to talk about my favorite genre of music, the heaviest of the metals. And despite my admiration of the art form, heavy metal has done almost exclusively nothing over the better part of the past year. But because I am your serpent-like messiah, I have found a wonderful selection for you. I hope your collective butts are ready for a blast, because this is:
My Top 10 Heavy Metal Songs of 2017
Number 10: Car Chase Club - Blue Stahli
Now you may call this one cheating, mainly because this song is more dubstep than it is metal, which is fair. However, my counter argument is simple. Heavy metal was doing almost nothing and I REALLY needed a number 10. Doesn’t hurt that this song is super good too.
When I’m looking at music for my leisure time, I like to look for songs with heavy drums and hard guitars, and this song delivers perfectly on both fronts. I’m really happy with how this one turned out and am excited to see what Mr. Stahli has in store for the future.
My one regret is that I REALLY needed a number 10 spot, so I really don’t have that much to say. The song is wicked. Go listen to it… Right now…
(I promise the other entries will be better!)
Number 9: Look What You Made Me Do - The Animal In Me
This cover is tight!
Now you need to realize, I HATE Taylor Swift’s newest gimmick of “Being the Bad Guy” for two reasons.
1. I don’t buy it.
2. I really don’t buy it.
But The Animal In Me? I TOTALLY buy it. They could convince me that they were doing this whole bad guy thing and I would be frightened, I would be running for the hills. They have an energy about them that adds to the song, taking a trash pop song making it horrifically effective.
The haunting lead vocals compliment the screaming of the chorus very well, and it takes a garbage song and pulls it into the best of the year. Rather impressive.
Number 8: No Grave But The Sea - Alestorm
I officially want every best of list to have at least one Alestorm song, and this one will do me fine.
Now what’s the song about? It doesn’t matter. It’s Alestorm, so the answer is probably pirate stuff, and that’s all I need! Alestorm are such an enigma of a talent that my year feels less fun when they don’t release something. So when they stop in, I always know I’m in for a wild ride with them.
They are silly in all the right ways, and embody everything I adore about metal. They are perfect in almost every way.
Number 7: Judgment Day - Dragonforce
Not gonna lie, I listened all three of the new singles by Dragonforce this year, and I wasn’t impressed. If Gamma Ray and Rhapsody of Fire hadn’t put out remaster’s this year, Dragonforce woudn’t be on the list. But, out of all of them, Judgment Day was the best.
It has the fastest, heaviest guitar of them all, and a very unique sound in comparison with the other two, or a lot of Dragonforce for that matter. But no matter how lackluster it is, Dragonforce is still awesome, no matter how bad they could be for the year.
No matter what, this song still rocks hard. And for all my complaining, it still is one of the best for the year.
But do you guys remember Gamma Ray? Those guys were rad!
Number 6: Dragonflies - Amberian Dawn
Well this one came out of nowhere. AND I LOVE IT!
If 2017 lacked in one thing, it was symphony metal. With only a few exceptions, I was very sad with the lack of Within Temptation this year, who would have been a shoe-in, but didn’t make anything this year. Bummer.
But hey, this song is still tight! With a powerful lead vocalist, shredding guitars and a ominous ensemble, Dragonflies was a surprise Christmas present that I will take arms open.
This song is so sick, I’m expecting these guys to be on the next years list.
Number 5: Burn Me - Xandria
Dang Xandria! What kind of talent enhancing substances were you guys on this year?
I mean, you guys had killed it in the past, but this album is so good! And this song is a personal favorite of mine.
As much as I love Xandria, they sometimes have a problem, that being that the music and vocals sometimes don’t mix very well. It’s still incredible, but not ‘Perfect’.
This, on the other hand, is perfect for both instrument and vocal. perfectly capturing the feeling of the songs tone, and the vocals are haunting in all the right ways. I adore this album and this song. It’s strangely upbeat, which I like.
Rock on Xandria!
Number 4: Unfaithful - Exit Eden
Pop quiz for you fans of symphony metal:
‘What is the most common theme for symphony metal songs?’
The answer? Fantasy. Lord of the Rings, Skyrim, Legend of Zelda, they all play into the idea that this sub-genre is all about fantasy with dragons and swords and princesses.
Not this one though.
Exit Eden, (Another band that came out of nowhere!) made a song about a very modern and real thing, cheating. And presented it with symphony metal to make a very harsh and real sounding experience, and in doing so, made a best of the year masterpiece.
This is not a happy song, but it is a killer one. And diffident best of the year.
Number 3: Fight Your Demons - Epica
I adore Epica. they were the ones who got me into metal in the first place, so I feel like I’m obligated to have somewhere on the list. And, it just so happens that they make a killer single for the number 3 spot.
Fight your Demons is everything I love about Epica, Simon Simons kills it with the vocals and the whole song has an intensity that I love. I made a tweet earlier in the year, saying that with Spotify on the Xbox, I was listening to Epica while playing Skyrim, and this song takes one of my favorite games of all time from a 10 to an 11.
No matter the climate and toxicity of modern pop and hip hop, I can always count on Epica to remind me of why I love music, and this song is no exception. Rock on you guys!
Number 2: Ride the Lightning - Halestorm
I have a bucket list. And with how morbidly obese I am, I’d better start working on that. But regardless, at the top of that list is to meet the people who have inspired me to pursue my dreams, and Halestorm is for sure one of them.
Now take them, and have them cover some Metallica, and what do you get?
In a word: Ecstasy
This might be one of, if not my absolute favorite covers by Halestorm. It has all the the elements that I adore in metal, strong guitar, thumping drums and of course, vocals by the legend herself: Lzzy Hale.
And it does not go to waste. Masterfully re-mastering the metal classic in a new, yet faithful way. And no matter how good I make it sound, it sounds even better. It is perfect ear candy.
Halestorm killed it, and it was hard to not give them the number 1 spot… But…
Number 1: Legendary - The Unguided
Hey my dubstep fans, you guys remember when The Unguided were famous for the remixes by Zardonic? Well, this song, right here. It cements The Unguided as one of the best metal band ever.
This song is so good! Everything I love is here! Guitars, Bass, Drums, and killer Vocals!
And unlike the other songs on the list, the unguided genuinely sound like something new.
I didn’t know just how much I needed this song in my life, it is so good. Like, you should stop reading and go find this song online. it is worth it.
And that’ll do it! Thank you all so much for reading, and I know that this “Year of the Raptor” Update has been taking a long time now, but I’m slowly but surely working on it.
But still, I feel bad for not having anything for you guys for the latter half of 2017. Although, tune in Christmas, We- I mean I, should have something killer planed. So just hang out and I’ll see you on Christmas morning!
#halestorm#the unguided#epica#xandria#exit eden#amberian dawn#dragonforce#alestorm#the animal in me#blue stahli#raptoreviews#just monika#top 10
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So, I've entered into a Remix Contest! So if you're interested, check it out! And any splice users out there, maybe consider giving it a like? I honestly don't care much for the prizes. This was just fun to work on!
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Doki Doki Literature Club: Review
Firstly, let’s start this off right…
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Man I LOVE Christmas! I haven’t actually done a Christmas post yet, (Sorry Tag Force!) and boy what a way to start! I’m actually talking about a relatively new game for once! Well, if you consider September new anyway…
WHICH I DO!
So, Doki Doki Literature Club, DDLC, the game that has reddit, YouTube and the internet at large in a hissy fit. Why? What did this game do to upset everyone so bad? The last time this happened over a random indie game was Undertale! And y'all know how I feelz about Undertale!
Well, there’s no time like the present. Let’s review what could be, the best game of the year.
Let’s end the year right with, Doki Doki Literature Club.
Now, it has been awhile since my last review. So I guess I need to get back into the swing of things… Okay, here we go:
Doki Doki Literature Club is the Dark Souls of Visual Novels!
Did I do it right? Did I meme correctly?
No? Oh. Fine then.
Regardless! Let’s do this old school and take it point by point.
Firstly, The Story:
The game is about you joining a book club for your best friend Sayori, there you find out that the whole club is made up of “Cute Girls”, and despite your lack of interest for literature in any capacity, you join to try and woo one of these girls into being your STUDY PARTNER. What? You thought I was going to say… Lover?
Well cool your jets Romeo! The game may have at least three trigger warnings on the front, but nudity ain’t one of ‘em! In fact, the beginning of the game has only one girl actually show you any signs of romantic interest. But to be honest, the lack of any kind of potential sex in the game actually makes it a little more, well. Human. The story is stupidly simple, and that’s a complement! For us die-hard VN (Visual Novel) enthusiasts, it’s common ground and familiar territory. The game has a setting that’s easy to understand, and easy to digest.
The art in the game is phenomenal! It’s just gorgeous to look at, and it helps the aesthetic of the game to pop. Seriously, this is awesome and I wish more dating Sims would take this approach with the art. And that MUSIC!!!
With tunes so catchy it could sweep you off your feet, the game has a blend of cute retro and classy acoustic that drives any and all emotional moments home. I could seriously hang out and just let the music take me. It’s perfect. With little to nothing to complain about.
Now let’s chat about the girls themselves, all four embodying traits and characteristics found in other dating sims. So let’s go through them in order (From left to right):
Sayori - Best Friend
Sayori is the one who starts all of the events in the game due to her convincing you to join the club.
Yuri - Shy girl
Yuri is super shy and loves to get lost in books, obviously she is the most popular amongst internet comments because of her POSTURE.
Monika - Popular Girl
Club president and the only one in the first half of the game to show you any kind of romantic interest. She my favorite.
Natsuke - Tsundere
Yup. Games got someone like that in it. The one who at the start loathes you, but eventually comes around to your char- Hahahahahah!!! A-hahaha! Sorry, couldn’t say it with a straight face.
That’s all of ‘em. Now you just gotta choose one (Except Monika) to impress with poetry. What’s great is that you get different cut-scenes for each, adding repeatability for all yous’s Comportionests out there.
BUT!
It ain’t all sunshine and roses, for As good as this game gets, I diffidently have some problems. Like, for example, why can’t I romance Monika? She my boo, my favorite!
So like I was saying, I have zero problems with Doki Doki Literature Club. The game-play is both superb in it’s execution, and masterful in design. This game is everything that I love in video games and has the best roster of characters. Such as Monika…
With that in mind, this game receives honors so high that I had to invent a new score for it. Therefor, let it be known that Doki Doki Literature Club gets:
#raptoreviews#ddlc#doki doki literature club#just monika#just mon ka#just m nik#just onika#m stands for me#hanging#no body would miss her#just#monika#j#u#s#t#m#o#n#i#k#a#phenomenal#01001101-01001111-01001110-01001001-01001011-01000001#reviews
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Update Part III: Unleashed
...
Aah!
Ohh... My head... Wha... What year is it?
2018!?
What!? Wha- WHY?! What happened!?!? I was supposed to make a review for Christmas! I need to get star-... It’s already done?
...Huh...
Well, I’ll just deal with that later I suppose... So, what am I gonna do now? I haven’t played anything worth talking about... I could... I mean, I suppose It’s about that time for an update, yeah?
Eh. Sure. Why not?
Well, let’s see... Oh! I got one!
TUMBLR SUCKS!!!
Well, let me rephrase that. Tumblr sucks for what I do. I think a lot of you guys are probably suspecting what I have in mind, and you would be right. I am working to host my own site for my reviews. Mostly so I can control my tags, see what looks good through my own tools, and simply make an environment for you guys to zone in and focus on stuff that we’re passionate about. So, with that in mind, if you guys have any recommendations about hosting sites that are cheap and reliable, please post down below. OR! You could also tell me on Twitter, which if you didn’t know, is right... Here!
https://twitter.com/raptoreviews
Alright, secondly, that there thar year of the raptor update... For those unaware, I basically made a declaration for my other work, (Youtube, Twitch, Ect.) that I wasn’t going to bother with trying to make content for any other project except this one. That, eh... Didn’t work out so well...
Simply put, it’s all my fault that the blog didn’t get as many uploads as I wanted. I’ve been in a bit of a bind for both funds and time, and it’s still no excuse. So let’s say it up front: I’m sorry, and I’m going to try harder. (On a side note, can you blame me? Literally almost every game at the latter half of 2017 was bad.)
Still! No excuse. Now, let’s go look at Youtube in preparation for that upda-
...
So. Yeah... It’’s basically the apocalypse.
So! Youtube has gutted my ability to gain ad-revenue until I get "Bigger”. So I’m going to make my declaration: WHEN THE ACTUAL BUILDING OF MY NEW PC HAPPENS! Then I will be making a Patreon page for the RaptoReviews brand. Which leads nicely into the next and last topic. MUSIC!!!
I’m making music in my spare time, and starting to get to the point where I’m almost comfortable releasing some to you guys. I want to open my musical doors with a full album, and I’m going to be working on sub-projects in my spare time. So sooner or later, I’ll be making a full album under my musical project: RIPPCORE.
(And before in gets asked, yes. The Patreon will be split between bothe RIPPCORE and RaptoReviews. If only want to support one or the other, either help me reach the threshold for the new ad system on youtube, or keep your eyes open for the ability to buy the RIPPCORE album. Soon...)
But, that’ll about do it. thanks so much you guys, and I’ll be seeing you later. Take care!
#status#just monika#can logan paul keep it in his pants for five minutes!?#RIPPCORE#raptoreviews#Soon...
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Update Part II: The Reckoning
Hey guys, whats happening? Raptor hear with my second ever update. It’s a fickle thing to address all of you at once, and one that I don’t take lightly. SO! Lets jump straight in:
ALL OF MY STUFF IS BROKEN!!!
Okay, okay. let me explain: What I meant to say is that my computer died recently. Now let me implore upon you just the gravity of the conundrum I find myself in:
All of the games I review are played primarily on a PC. Which is now dead.
Good.
So, for the time being, I am now a console gamer. I play games primarily on my XBONE, which does limit what I can play on a regular basis. So reviews are going to come when I can get the time to deep dive into a game for a extended period of time. I can’t review anything on PC right now, and due to personal vows, I do not own a PS4. No one owns a Switch, (Admit it!) And I’m very upset about it. Not only that, the computer I do have to review games is a Chromebook, now that’s okay, but this thing is NOT built for gaming or video editing. So in short:
If it’s not on XBOX, I cant review it right now.
Now let’s talk about work: I am going to be busy for August in it’s entirety. For those who don’t know, there’s a solar eclipse happening in August, and NASA thought it would be funny to tell people that Idaho is the best place to see it. So everyone is going to want pizza, and you can see my problem here. I’m going to be super busy for the whole month, and possibly a little bit after. So that’s going to damper that whole gaming thing. Oops.
Now for lighter news! I now have a little list of titles that I have been working on, and you all get to see the next three reviews in order:
1. GTA V
2. WWE 2K17
3. Witchblade Anime
Sorry Witchblade fans, its nothing personal. I just need time to figure out what I truly need to say to describe what I think of that show.
One last thing: I’m starting a podcast. It’s might be a combo of random things that I want to rant about, and also replacing these update posts. The RaptorCast (Working title) will be hopefully uploaded to either here or Soundcloud every week, I’m thinking Thursday or Friday. I usually have those day’s off.
So anyway, that’s about it. I should be rebuilding my PC over the year, and have it in working order by 2018. Thank you all for the support, I really appreciate it. Take care. Love you! Bye!
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Guitar Hero Live: Review
Real talk, back in the day, Guitar Hero was the best thing ever. It was a game that defied logic in terms of how good it was! Taking a simple concept that games like Dance Dance Revolution truly took and ran with, and truly making it their own! However, Guitar Hero had a certain, problem… See, the publisher to the game, Activision, decided to release, if I’m not mistaken, somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 Guitar Hero games.
In a single year.
Ultimately saturating the market, and killing the franchise dead in its tracks. However, seemingly out of nowhere, Guitar Hero made a triumphant return! With a brand new game, Guitar Hero live! Well, it was new at the time… I’m kind of late to the party, but I haven’t seen a lot of big reviews about it, so… I thought I’d give my two cents!
Now, if you played any of the old Guitar Hero games…
This isn’t anything like them.
First off, the game uses a brand new controller. Ultimately different from what the old controllers established, 5 color coated buttons corresponding to different functions in the game. Now, there’s two rows of buttons. Three black and three white. That equals about six different buttons that you’re able to push. But not only that, some combos of notes will have you push both buttons at the same time! That, along with button-less strumming, equals about 10 different combos of buttons to use at any given time.
While it might not SEEM like a lot, it gets confusing pretty quickly. This also means that all your previous Guitar Hero controllers are 100% not compatible with this one! You must use the new controllers, no questions asked. No other alternative. Which sucks, because third party companies like Mad Catz stopped making Guitar Hero controllers because, well,
The franchise’s been dead in its tracks for years!
All right, but what about the live aspect? What makes this game so alive? Well, the game instead of using 3D modeling, decided to go with full motion video. Now, if you’re asking yourself, ‘how can they make full motion video work in a game like this?’ The answer is simple:
They can’t. They cheated. A lot.
As far as I can tell, from my brief playing time so far, the game recorded about four different versions of the same concerts. One where you’re doing exceptionally well, another where you’re doing okay, I suppose. One where you’re starting to fail a bit, and one when you’re sucking really, really bad. In a very blurry, and very obvious transition, the game will gradient shift to the next version of the concert depending on your score. indicating if you’re doing well or not, it’s very, very abrupt. And there’s no smoothness to the thing, you’ll look at the crowd and open your eyes and everyone’s now booing you for no reason. Only one extra note better, you get their favor back.
Now what about the song selection? Well, It’s actually pretty good! It’s what I would expect from Modern Guitar Hero game, with some pretty rockin’ soundtracks! You got things like Halestorm, Fall Out Boy, Imagine Dragons, and…
*Sigh*
Twenty One Pilots…
All around, the soundtrack is pretty okay! I could see myself getting used to it pretty quickly, but I am kind of missing a lot of the older songs, and some of the songs made specifically for the game. like the rock version of Devil Went Down to Georgia in Guitar Hero 3. All around, the soundtrack for the game is pretty good so far.
Now I know what you’re all asking, ‘Raptor, why did you do a review of this game?’
Well it’s because the game is stupid. as a modern Guitar Hero game, it does some things that truly stun me. First off, the game, even on Xbox One, pulled a classic technique of this generation consoles. Telling me that the game was done and ready to play a whole hour before the game was actually done. Meaning that even though the game is up here, ready to play on my dashboard, I actually couldn’t get in till installed it’s 32 gigabyte patch.
Which is kind of dumb.
Not only that, but once I got in the game, I was locked into a tutorial even though I kind of didn’t want one. Even if I was going to suck, I would rather the game give me the option to suck. But I was stuck in this tutorial learning to play the games way. And then after that, I was locked into a concert where I wasn’t able to actually select songs to play. I had to play sets starting with Fall Out Boy and then presenting music that I’ve never personally heard of.
Not only that, the game also has other things that are really dumb in comparison to older guitar Heroes.
For one thing, because the game wants to be even more “immersive”, the game has a first-person perspective. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the game also uses this first person perspective to really distract you from what you’re doing. Things are consistently going on in the background, so much so that you can’t focus on what you’re actually trying to focus on.
Playing the game.
NOT! ONLY! THAT!, Experience strange difficulty spikes that I couldn’t quite grasp! The game was on medium and I was still having a bit of a hard time completing the first set of songs. so I opted into the novice difficulty. I decide to try easy and see if it made the game at least a bit more bearable. Maybe eliminating those double combo Frets, that sort of deal.
But what I wasn’t prepared for, was the game to eliminate ALL of the frets. I only had to strum at, drum roll please!
15% speed…
So the game is basically telling you that it’s either disrespectfully too easy, or ludicrously difficult for beginners. Meaning that the game is very inaccessible to those who want to play it. I’ve only played it personally a couple times, and I’m not really feeling up to playing it any more than that. I don’t know if the new rock band game is going to fare much better, but personally, Guitar Hero Live is disappointing. Now of course, if you enjoy Guitar Hero live, that’s good! I’m glad! However, please respect me when I give the game a final rating of…
Now before I leave you, I have a mini update for you all, I know that the blog has been dry in terms of content, but I’m trying to get more stuff out to you guys, so to satiate your apatite’s, have a mini spoiler.
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This has been a long time coming. I hope you enjoy!
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Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist Review
When we all think of Yugioh, we all think:
But when KONAMI thinks of Yugioh, they think:
We already know this, KONAMI has prioritized money making tactics over fun mechanics in Yugioh games for years. While the people who fired their best man get rightfully ripped a new one every time they mess up, the Yugioh games seem to get a free pass. So imagine my shock and horror when I hear that the newest Yugioh game on XBONE and PS4 is really good! Then it finally came out on steam and, well...
It LOOKS okay, I guess...
Honestly, I wasn’t impressed. I’ve played this same card game 100 times before, in more then four to five console generations, and it’s still just as predictable. Honestly, you’d have more fun watching the anime, or, you know, play the actual card game. Either way, I’ll give this one a chance. I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and treat it with the respect for being the only official Yugioh game made for the PC market.
(Besides the PC exclusive titles, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.)
Now I’ll skip the game play, mainly because if you know the card game, you know the PC game. so we’ll be looking purely on how lazy the story is. I’ll touch the game-play if it needs to be brought up.
Cool? Cool.
Now let’s talk presentation: The art in this game is gorgeous! It looks just as good as you expect, it’s obvious that most of the art resources for the game went to the stills in the game. They are done with the fidelity you would expect for these kind of games. However, the same cannot be said for the 3D models in the game. Though few and far between, some of the games more iconic (”Proper iconic, not Ubisoft iconic.” Jim Sterling) monsters have full 3D renders and animations for them. Although bafflingly, only when they attack other monsters, not direct attacks.
Odd.
The STORY however, is where the game starts to fall apart. the game uses the most lazy story telling cliche in almost every licensed game nowadays. I say ALOMST because the exception that makes the rule is DRAGON BALL Z: XENOVERSE (Review coming soon). Think about that story, how good it was. How it was able to take the tired, old, and overused story arcs and pump life into them by filling a void that didn’t exist. By letting the player directly change the story, it was able to feel fresh and new. It made me giddy to play the story over, and over again.
Legacy of the Duelist has none of that!
The game retells the story of all five of the different main characters, now if your a fan of the old stuff like me, then you only have three, because Zexal and Arc-V didn’t happen. Right?
The story leaves out some of the filler duels from the show, for what we presumed to be. Well, cutting out the filler. But no, of course not. They cut it out to sell you DLC story missions for no reason. So if you’re on the fence on the DLC, don’t bother. It’s really not worth it unless you’re a hard core fan.
Now I only played up to the end of the first series, so I need to still play the other story’s, but I’m really not feeling that optimistic to see something truly exciting or out there.
I do wan’t to say something nice about the game-play, and that’s the story decks. The best way to play the game is to play with the decks from the show, it adds a little bit of challenge, an element in which the game severely needed, the game got WAY too easy if you play with a user deck. Plus, it makes no sense for Yugi to be Xyz summon every time. I’m glad that the game really suggests you to play with the story decks so that the game gets at least a little more challenging.
As much as I hate to say, that’s about it. The game is exactly as it looks on youtube, there is really no reason to buy this game when the older games, say on the PSP and the GBA are significantly more loved and respected. And, to add insult to injury, the PSP games look and play just as good on an emulator,
If not better.
So don’t play this one, play Tag Force on PSP. It’s super good. I really want to go play Tag Force. I think that’ll be the Christmas review. Yeah, you heard it here first, Tag Force. Christmas. Review. This game’s not really good.
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Battleborn Review
Yeah. I’m talking about it. I’m talking about the game no one’s talking about right now. Oh sure I could be practical and up-to-date and review, say, No Man’s Sky. But you know, I’m a dinosaur. It says so in my name. I pretty much only review a few things that aren’t relevant right now. I also could talk about OverWatch’s Rio Loot Box controversy. But why would I do that when I could find a chance to Riff on gearbox for a while? That’s right,
Today we’re reviewing Battleborn.
Quick little story about Battleborn, I looked at this game, and then I looked at OverWatch, and I didn’t care. Battleborn just didn’t interest me! I don’t know what it was, the Battleborn universe and setting just wasn’t of my thing, but I was really into OverWatch. However, with its recent, let’s just say, “bad” decisions, we might as well talk about the game no one cares about, so no one can get mad at me about it!
So Battleborn, this game is good. Just good. Not mind-blowing, not insane, not the next big thing. Just, good. Which kind of sucks because I know gearbox really wanted it to be the next big thing. I mean, this game was having opposition before it was even released! The Battleborn trailer came out before OverWatch’s trailer. However, when everyone was excited about Battleborn, and then we saw OverWatch, everyone just became the biggest cynical prick. I mean, think about it: Who would you rather Trust? Blizzard, or gearbox. Who would you rather Trust? The guys who made Diablo, or the guys who made Aliens: Colonial Marines.
I think I’d choose blizzard.
However, now that both games are out, I think it’s time we try to review Battleborn and compare it as little as I can to OverWatch. Because they are two very different games. It’s like comparing Team Fortress 2 and League of Legends. You just can’t make the comparison, one of them’s a shooter and the other ones on MOBA. So we’re going to try to focus more on Battleborn’s comparison with gearboxes other titles. For example, I can’t tell the difference between Battleborn and Borderlands. I mean, they’re both made by gearbox, they are both cartoony shooters, and they both have a very cynical, meta sense of humor. I can’t tell the difference! The whole time I was playing Battleborn, I just felt like I was playing the new Borderlands game. Which isn’t a bad thing per se, but I think Battleborn needed more of an identity. I don’t want to just say it’s the new Borderlands game, because I feel like It had so much potential to be more. However, the whole time I just couldn’t get that out of my head. it’s Borderlands, over and over again.
So the thing that Battleborn does that’s very different, is the fact that gives you the option to play either single player or multiplayer. And I’m not upset by this, I’m more upset that OverWatch doesn’t have a single player mode, because I don’t like other people. I only play Pub OverWatch because I have to, if I had it my way, I’d never play with another human being unless I was in ranked. And this is something Battleborn does better, that you do have the option to play single player, and not only single player,but you can play with any hero you desire in single player that you have unlocked, but there are a lot of them and they’re pretty easy to unlock. It actually rewards you for playing the single-player mode by giving you more characters and customization options with a lot less microtransactions then OverWatch. Not to say Battleborn doesn’t have microtransactions, the game has a premium currency which you can use to buy exclusive content. Things like taunts, specialty skins, and even a couple of characters. You can only unlock them with this Platinum currency, which really sucks because they weren’t there when the game first came out, and I would not be sad if gearbox got rid of them all together. I also wouldn’t be sad if gearbox made it a lot cheaper. The game having a steep $60 price tag is really not worth it. If I made this review sooner, I would have recommended you buy the 2K bundle off Humble Bundle, giving you the game for $15, which is really all it’s worth. However, if you do have the 60 bucks to burn, you probably won’t be disappointed with your purchase.
It has a lot of great ideas going for it. The classes are always enjoyable, and I’m never sad when my main character gets picked, because I can easily switch to another one. And the game has a good sense of the fact that it’s a video game, it plays around with the idea where the characters make topical references, and doing things that only a video game can do, That being said, the game itself has some real serious problems. I don’t disagree with the people who don’t like it on Steam, the game has a real balancing problem. The game is almost impossible in single-player mode. The game really wants you to play with more people. But again, it’s really hard to do that when the game is $60 and my friends can’t buy it. Why? Because it’s $60! To have the team that the game expects me to have for every level, we’d all have to drop a total of a 180$ to get my friends the game! And frankly, that’s just too much.
If the game was $15 to $20, it would be a lot better. That way we only have to drop maybe, if we want more people, $100 to get everyone a copy of the game. Then I don’t think anyone would really be upset. However, with its current price tag, the game really wants you to play single player mode. However, because it’s so expensive, and game’s not balanced for single player. It ultimately fails.
You have to play very specific classes in very specific missions in order to advance. For example, I was playing level one and I couldn’t beat it. I decided to start with the character Rath, a dude with Big Ol’ Red swords, he was really cool. However, he had so little health, and the game was getting me swarmed by so many people, I died instantly. And by the way, if you die 5 times without picking up extra lives, it’s game over. You have to start the mission back from the beginning. That’s like NES levels of stupid.
One of the funniest things about Borderlands was the fact you bought your way back to existence. However, this game really wants you to do well. I think every player shares the same lives meter, you can correct me if I’m wrong in the comments. Anyway, that sucked. So I switched to a new character, I played as this one Lumberjack dude with a minigun, only to find out that the minigun overheats very quickly, so I was getting killed very quickly. Eventually I said screw it, and decided to play as the robot sniper and I finally beat level 1! I used the character i unlocked from level 1 to beat level 2, then I unlockd the next character and used them to beat level 3, and as of the time of writing this review, I’m still stuck on level 4.
Out of 8.
I’m not even halfway through the whole game yet, and I’m already stuck again!
The biggest problem is the game throws out way too many enemies. Sure, there’s enough for maybe a whole team to beat but I’m by myself and the game doesn’t accommodate to that and guess what I’m on the easiest difficulty it gets harder!
So I can’t tell you the end of the game because I don’t even know it myself! So instead, we’ll just talk about how the game plays.
And it is Battleborn’s strongest suit.
The game has a very cool way of quantifying your level and skills. Throughout the level as you level up, you start to be able to unlock one of the perks for every single level.
You can unlock the fun perk and the game per. And, to my knowledge, it basically means that’s the fun perk gives you weird, outlandish abilities. And the game perk gives you really heavy hitting, up close personal combat abilities. I could be totally wrong. That is probably one of the weaker aspects of the game, it’s that it doesn’t explain a lot.
The game has a really direct sense of humor, and in the worst possible. The whole time the game is just throwing “Ha ha, look what we’re doing!” jokes,
There’s literally one moment where the game started counting how many times I died, and then in an Undertale style, started making fun of me for it. With the boss literally telling me that he’s going to pretend to be surprised that I’m here today, and in level 4, before started, I had the ship start telling me what to do instead of the main character of the mission telling me what to do because I died so many times.
It’s a little discouraging when the game starts making fun of me for dying.
With Undertale, in the final fight against Sans, he started making fun of you because you were the bad guy. Because you killed everyone. In Battleborn, the game is making fun of me because I’m apparently inept. I can’t figure it out, according to the game.
And if there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s when the game starts insulting me because I can’t figure it out. And of course, the game is making fun of me because it got harder and I can’t handle it. And I guarantee all the people in the comments of this review are going to tell me that I just need to get better, I need to get good. As Dark Souls would put it, Now am I saying the game is rightfully getting destroyed and reviews? No. The game’s multi-player is fun! I can see the game really getting off the ground by multi-player alone. However, Battleborns one attention-grabbing gimmick, the thing that makes me want to play this game more than OverWatch, when that thing is not ready, when it’s not balanced, That’s when I get upset. And I’m going to tell you right now, If you have to choose between the two if you’re by yourself, just play OverWatch, and then just play multi-player and get over it. And I don’t want to have to tell you to get over it, because I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to play multiplayer rather than single player. I appreciate the option, I appreciate Battleborn giving me the option to either play by myself or with friends. However, with the game’s current state, with it really wanting me to just get better or get team of pubs together, I just don’t care. All around, I can say that I had fun in Battleborn. And I’m probably going to keep having fun in Battleborn. However in its current incarnation, as of August 9th 2016, I give Battleborn a final grade of:
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Custom Robo Review
Custom Robo is a game franchise that was released in Japan for the Nintendo 64 and it was a big hit over there.
It was a game that was released by NOISE and Nintendo, it was a cool little idea, because this was great, as it was able to bring that childlike wonder of animes about toys into the gaming scene.
Now we’re not going to be talking about the Nintendo 64 game, mainly because it’s Japanese exclusive. I’ve looked around, hither and thither, trying to find English patches for ROM files. But I have done so without any success. Besides, I played, in my oh so humble opinion, the better version of these games Custom Robo for the GameCube.
Custom Robo for the GameCube encapsulates everything I want in an RPG game! The story is fun and enjoyable, but knows when to take itself seriously. The gameplay is seriously unique, especially for its time, and the characters are memorable and fun.
Let’s start with the story.
The game begins with our main character who you do get to name. I will be naming him Raptor. Because why not. And we get a phone call, it’s from our dad and he says that he’s waiting outside for us, so we go out there and we receive our present for birthday, we aquire his watch, which, he tells us to promise him we will never take off.
After that he heads off back to work on an emergency. And then, years later, we are informed he died at work. Now one of the things this game does that kinda weirds me out, is the fact that were never told what our mother was doing, or what happened to her.
She just kind of went I guess.
Our fathers will told us he wanted us to become a robo battler, and he left us an inheritance to afford our apartment. However, his inheritance money is running out, so we need to get a job.
You know, this is starting to hit little too close to home, because it took me a very long time to find a job… But whatevers.
We head over to a bounty hunter service called Steel Hearts, where we meet the boss, Ernest. He tells us that were not allowed to join unless we have a robot companion. so, what is a simple boy to do?
Why become a victim of circumstance, of course!
We are told a robo lab is under attack and that we’re going to go with our partner, named Harry, to find out what happened. once we get there, we find out that the police force are fighting off criminals from an unknown location. Harry tries to stop them, and promptly gets his butt kicked. That’s when we find a cube laying on the ground. It does what’s called an eye scan registration. And now, this cube is apparently bound to us.
So now we can introduce the combat of the game. And let me tell you, it’s actually pretty cool! Rather than do turn-based combat, active combat, or even just first person shooter combat, which wouldn’t be out of place at the time, instead, we are thrown into an arena, where our Custom Robos, from a top-down perspective, are basically shooting at each other at an interesting angle, and, have some fun controls.
Being able to shoot our guns, bombs, and able to deploy hover bombs, which are called pods, is a fun, interesting way to fight. Keeping action high, and fights intense.
Eventually, we defeat all the goons, and then the leader of the lab, named Linda, tells us that we are controlling an experimental robo named Ray 1. We’re told we get to keep it, and then we get the job at Steal Hearts. By her recommendation.
We’re told, however, that steal hearts isn’t just a two man show. That there’s actually a third member, named Marcia. We don’t know anything about her, so I will get her later. Basically, the game progresses like any other RPG would for a while. Now one thing that kind of sucks, is that there’s a lot of waiting in the game. Even when I know exactly what to do, I still have to wait around and waste time, doing random events, and a whole lot of trying to wait for the events I want to happen to happen.
Now the game’s not long, and I can beat it in about 2 or 3 days in small bursts. Or, if you asked me to give you an exact time,
I’d probably say around 8/10 hours. I think.
Anywho, the game then allows us to fight other people on the overworld to get more Custom Robo parts, as we get more parts, we’re able to customize our robot to include different model types and weapons.
There are a lot of different models in the game. First, we have The Shining Fighters, which are the most balanced.
We have the Ariel Beauties, who do better staying in the air.
We have the Big Head models, which can take a lot of hits but aren’t very good at dishing them out.
We have the Little Raiders who move fast but are as weak as, like, a pencil.
We have the Metal Graplplers, who move super slow, but are really strong and hard to knock down.
We have the Strike Vanisher models, these ones can teleport, and are fairly well balanced.
We have the Trick Flyers, who jump super high, but take a lot of damage.
And then we have the Lighting Sky models, and these ones are cool! They’re basically Transformers, who can turn into planes and fly around the arena.
After a while we do get to meet Marcia and not going to lie…
Marcia is pretty hot.
Now I’m not one to get game crashes… HOWEVER! Marcia is really hot!
She’s got that cute pigtail / anime style thing going for her, and her outfit looks like it’s straight out of Vocaloids. But it’s still pretty cool! And she shy, but also super strong, and really skilled, and she’s super cool bro!
While we’re on the subject of Marcia, we learn more about her backstory, Marcia has an ability called a Half-Dive, Basically, she can dive into another persons robo. And, because of this, she was experemented on, with her brother being the only person who looked after her. Then, gasp, he dies.
And thats why she is so closed off.
Eventually we are introduced to our main antagonists of the game, the Z Syndicate! They tell us they’re hunting a robo called Rahu. We’re told by the police force that we need to get it first, and thus, after a couple hours in the game, we finally have the end goal in sight! Now one smart thing this game does, is that even though the stakes are obviously higher, it never loses its sense of humor or charm. Even when we’re in the Z Syndicate headquarters, everything is still fun and enjoyable.
Speaking of which, before we head to The Z Syndicate headquarters, we’re told a secret about our world. Apparently, the world of Custom Robo is surrounded by a dome. Why is that dome in place? Because Rahu destroyed the outside world, so what happened was the government erased people’s memories about Rahu and the outside world and then kept it a secret, telling people that we’ve been in the dome since the dawn of time. It’s actually kind of a cool twist.
Thus, we journey to the outside world. Where, we see it is decayed and dead. We eventually find the Z Syndicate HQ and proceeded to break in.
Once inside, we find Rahu stuck inside of a tank, while the leader of The Z Syndicate and his partner are trying to stop us. But surprise! It turns out the leaders partner, named Sergei, is actually Marcia’s brother, who we thought died!
He helps us fight the leader, and eventually, Rahu escapes. We are then told the rest of the story. As it turns out that our main character’s father is actually the leader of the Z Syndicate! And, like I said, even with startling revelations like this, the game never loses its tongue and cheek humor.
Anywho!
We then go to fight Rahu, having to go through the last remaining members of the Z Syndicate. After we reach the end, we find Rahu who in his fully evolved form, yeah I forgot to mention, Rahu actually does evolve over time, and this is his third form. In this form, the titular robot is exceptionally powerful. Anytime we knock him down, he instantly gets up with brief invulnerability. But, through perseverance, hard work, and willpower… Eventually, we do kill him. Rahu is defeated, yeah! It’s finally over. We’re told our watch, the one our father gave us, is the memory erasing device. And that if we give it to Sergei, we can undo the damage that was done, and remind people about the outside world. Thus, the story comes to a close.
But the game’s not over!
After you beat the story mode, you get a secondary story, which is basically a continuation, leading into a tournament where you’re able to fight all the characters from the game up to this point. There’s a lot of cool stipulations attached to it as well, sometimes you have to do a tag team match, other times, a Battle Royal, other times it’s just straight-up one-on-one..
However, telling you about it in this review would be ruining the experience. There’s so much I already left off that I could probably go on about this for the next hour or so. So instead, I’m going to leave you with this.
Buy. This. Game.
Anyway you need to, you need to play it. This game know exactly what it is. And, it’s perfectly okay with that. With lots of great jokes, fun memorable characters and, for its time, it was something completely different. We were still drowning in modern military FPS games, that when this came out, it was such a breath of fresh air. Also the game was not developed by a big name RPG company, which might not mean a lot now, but back in the day, that was a big deal for them to put that much faith in one game.
So, what’s my final verdict?
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Planteary Inquisition: Tincans Raptor Review
Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a game studio named, THQ. They, along with another company named Gas Powered Games, made a little title, which, in of itself, was a spiritual successor to an RTS named Total Annihilation, simply known as, Supreme commander, SupCom was one of the best StarCraft clones this side of war-craft, which is ironic, because starcraft and war craft were made by the same people.
Anyway, Supreme Commander was a great little title, earning enough experience points to evolve into a technical sequel, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance! This game fixed all the problems with the original, not that the original had that many problems to fix. However, This would sadly be the last time we would see a new supreme commander game until 2010. When it had been reviled that Square Enix bought the license to SupCom, and we got… (Audible Sigh) Stupid Commander 2…
Well, with that we confirmed that we wouldn’t be getting Supreme Commander 3. But screw that, right? Because Uber entertainment would bestow unto us the spiritual sequel to Supreme Commander called: Planteary Inquisition!
Now, Uber were of course up front with us, and told us to make this game, they needed NINE HUNDRED-THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!
While that may sound insane to humans, that’s actually rather small compared to games like GTA V with a five hundred-million dollar budget, so if Rockstar proved anything, it’s that if you have people excited for an amazing idea, people will cough up the dough.
With all that said,
Did it live up to the hype?
In short. No.
This title flopped ALMOST as hard as Mighty No. 9… ALMOST.
First off, the game was in early access for a short time, in which Uber told is they wanted us “Dedicated” to the cause, and asked us for a jaw dropping $89.99 on steam, making the most expensive steam early access game of all time!
When the game finally released, fans were met with the following:
Lag Spikes
Crashing
No single player mode
A strange mode called “Galactic Conquest”
Seriously, no story? That’s what made SupCom cool man.
Uber, in all their “Whisdom” decided to, rather then FIX Platypus Affirmation, decided to release a brand new game only a few months after the first one, Gigantiary installation: Titans was released with a steep 40 dollar price tag. Now, one thing Uber did right was allow owners of the original upgrade for a measly $13.50, so, I guess that’s some what okay.
So, about that whole Galactic War thing:
“Galactic War” is one of the worst ideas ever, It plays like a board game with no story, you move from planet to planet, gaining tech and units so you can fight the other factions in mortal kombat, there’s actually no reason for the Legendary Dandelion that the title mentions to be happening, it’s all mindless violence for the sake of mindless violence! there’s NO reason to play this mode! EVER!
Now, if you’re like me and are socially awkward AND playing a game no one cares about any more, it’s time for skirmish mode. You have a pathetic line up of commanders from default, so unless you wanna cough up roughly $145.74.
When getting into the game, it takes an eternity to load, I was able to BEAT pacman before the game booted up. That’s a lie, I’m not good enough to beat pacman.
One problem with the game is that the planets are so small, they make Pluto look like the Jupiter.
One of my biggest complaints is that all the army’s look and play the same, the type of commander you pick makes literally zero impact on the fight. One of the best features of Supreme Commander is the idea that your commander changes how you play. like the Cybrens beong able to have boats with legs.
Boats with legs.
Now, I know what you are all REALLY here for:
The Titans baby!
AND! … They kinda suck. they aren’t even half as cool as the experimental units in SupCom. There is literally one that just hops around like a jack rabbit, it makes D.VA’s emote look respectable.
Any-hoo, etymological-dictionary richard-coeur-de-lion really kinda falls flat on it’s face here, with no story, bland army and small planets, it kinda turns into a cluster of random units, with color being the only degree of separation. The only cool thing to do, is summon the aforementioned titans.
Well, game play pretty much progresses like you expect it to. You make tons of units, your opponents make tons of units, and you FIGHT TO THE DEATH!!!
Only problem, more often then not, you and your rival are on different planets. That means that you HAVE to build transport units/teleporters in order to launch an attack, meaning there is only one strategy, ZUUUUUUUUUUUURG RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!!!!
And even THEN zurg rush’s are high nigh impossible, you need TONS of transport to even get on the same plane of existance as your opponent, and even when you do, they still are in a better way then you, in the galactic view, you can see units flying all around the sun, meaning, you can see transport from a mile away!
If you have a R.O.B the robot helping you out, he’ll probably have the right idea and do nothing but launch nukes for days until the opposition screams space uncle.
The ONLY thing that was cool about my machine readable dictionary, Leo-the-lion experience was the system editor.
You’re able to make a custom solar system that you and your robot buddy’s are able to mess around in. The tools are pretty powerful for what they are. The planets you can make range from basic earth templates, all the way to the death star!
You can edit the mass of the planet, the amount of metal per spot and fully make the star trek galaxy that you and your robot buddy’s always wanted.
The Final Verdict
So what do I think in total?
PROS
Nice colors
Nostalgic
Crashing planets into other planets
Runs 10 times better then the original
CONS
Without original, costs $40
Commander changes nothing
Army’s all look the same
No single player
Still can’t see where nine hundred-thousand dollars went
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