After Darkfall
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The New Home to Aura: After Darkfall & Chad's Video Game Reviewsenhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/templates/bulletproof/img/s9y_banner_small.pngRSS: After Darkfall - The New Home to Aura: After Darkfall & Chad's Video Game Reviews
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10021Pillage Like a Viking: Its Assassins' Creed Valhalla!
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/84-Pillage-Like-a-Viking-Its-Assassins-Creed-Valhalla!.html
<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="9eabg-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="9eabg-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="9eabg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Time to talk about Assassins' Creed: Valhalla!</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="aj1ca-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="aj1ca-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="ajk3f-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="ajk3f-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="ajk3f-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">*NOTE: I am using male pronouns for the protagonist, Eivor because that's how I played. Like AC: Odyssey you have the choice of gender at the beginning of the game. On a historical note, Eivor is a feminine name and at one point Eivor, no matter which gender you pick as Eivor Varinsdottir which translates to Eivor, Daughter of Varin.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="920bd-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="920bd-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="8jae9-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="8jae9-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="8jae9-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Valhalla takes us back to the 9th century during the closing days of the Great Heathen Army in England. The protagonist, Eivor, has come to England to help his clan start a new life away from the cold or Norway. As the story progresses Eivor becomes the guiding force in securing alliances for his newfound settlement and protect his people. He's also introduced to a pair of Hidden Ones, the Assassins. They set him on the track of eliminating the Order of the Ancients, the precursors to the Templars of the first games.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="a1p1o-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="a1p1o-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="ajr6u-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="ajr6u-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="ajr6u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Additionally, there are more AC mainstays such as dealing with the Isu mythology. For the first time in AC history the Isu stories deal more with Norse legend rather than Grecko Roman and there are two arcs involving Asgard and Jotunheim. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="eh3r5-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="eh3r5-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Story: </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="5n4vj-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5n4vj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="8mdte-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="8mdte-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="8mdte-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm going to break this up into two segments. The England Invasion/Order of the Ancients story and the Isu Asgardian story.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="aorhu-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="aorhu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="avhdi-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="avhdi-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="avhdi-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The intertwined England/Order story is remarkable. It is a throwback to earlier Assassins' Creed games where you are living a part of real history. Real personalities, real history, real location (albeit fictionalized for the game) make this feel more grounded in reality. And a great, big lure for history nerds. Odyssey, in comparison was grounded more in Greek Myth as much as it was in the historical happenings of its time. And the Sci-Fi element was more pervasive. While many of the twists in Valhalla were telescoped so many more weren't and some were heart wrenching. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="6oh80-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="6oh80-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="3ac33-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="3ac33-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3ac33-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The other story revolving around the Isu and Asgard which I won't give too many spoilers on because well...they'd be spoilers, felt a little more out of place. While interesting in and of itself you always felt like maybe you should be back in England getting things done rather than floating around in the translation of an Isu memory. The Asgard story was vital to why things happen late in the England story but it could have been more to the point; some of its puzzles seemed tacked on and a pain in the ass rather than fun and advancing the action. I am very much looking forward to going to Ireland when the DLC comes out.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="52cvm-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="52cvm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="3faer-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="3faer-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3faer-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Gone are the side quests of Odyssey & Origins in the traditional sense. There's the main story and its immediate quests that affect it in some way, some special stories, and then the environmental quests. These take the form of finding wealth items, finding artifacts, and solving mysteries. Some are tedious, some are fun. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="5ce1d-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5ce1d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="b0mm-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="b0mm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Graphics:</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="fr9co-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="fr9co-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="5mpf3-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="5mpf3-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5mpf3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Top Notch. I started playing it on my aging and dying XBox One and it was beautiful there. It shit the bed about halfway through and I was able to get my hands (thanks to my wife!) on a Series X. Holy. Shit.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="211oh-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="211oh-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="c1j67-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="c1j67-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="c1j67-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">One of the best signs of graphics in a game is to pay attention to how they treat water. When you feel like you're looking at a running river or roiling ocean you know they've done a great job. The river long-boat component has a beautiful cinematic mode while riding on the river.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="bt91v-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="bt91v-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="dvcli-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="dvcli-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="dvcli-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The environments and wilds of England are beautiful. Historic places and landmarks such as Stone Henge and the cliffs of Dover are a wonder to behold (and I'm really glad I got to see them in Series X. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="237ek-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="237ek-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="bbjla-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="bbjla-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="bbjla-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The character depiction is very good. Not many graphical anomalies to take you out of the moment. The male Eivor will look very familiar and I, and a lot of other people, will happily put money on betting that Eivor is an ancestor to Edward Kenway. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="63biq-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="63biq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="cu1ag-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="cu1ag-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sound: </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="a8t4r-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="a8t4r-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="a60qn-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="a60qn-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="a60qn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The voice acting is top notch and the sound effects and music are right where you'd expect them to be. Sometimes though the music is too loud (even if you play with the volume) and some of the dialogue gets buried. Play with sub titles. You'll thank me.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="3fuge-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3fuge-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="6hm39-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="6hm39-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Control:</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="c1j5d-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="c1j5d-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="45inu-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="45inu-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="45inu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">As the third game of the reboot era it has a pretty good refinement on combat, travel, and Eaglevision, now called Odin Sight for this. edition. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="1du4-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="1du4-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="97o1g-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="97o1g-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="97o1g-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sure, you can try to be stealthy and with a great deal of patience it is possbile. its just not practical. At this stage the AC games have abandoned stealth.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="5hshj-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5hshj-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="5vo0-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="5vo0-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5vo0-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Going deeper it has refined the adrenaline system from Origins & Odyssey and many of your special abilities are part of this. They are very easy to use and the only complaint I can offer is that you have to pick four melee abilities and four ranged abilities to be active adrenaline skills and there are so many more skills you want to use. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="et588-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="et588-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="51tcr-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="51tcr-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="51tcr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The skill system itself is massive. Its intimidating. Honestly, after getting the specific abilities I wanted I began to let "fate choose." It hasn't let me down yet.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="2pfj8-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="2pfj8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="8ikgu-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="8ikgu-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="8ikgu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The customization is through the roof. You can customize your weapons, hair, tattoos, and armor on your person. In the settlement of Ravensthorpe (a very real place, btw), you can customize decorations, build it up similar to the Davenport Homestead in AC III, and customize your longboat with all ends of cosmetics. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="edar2-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="edar2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="1k3m6-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="1k3m6-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="1k3m6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">There are bugs. Oh boy are there bugs. HUGE bugs that for some people have outright broken the game. I was lucky; but its possible that at about 100 hours in that the story NPCs simply stop working and you have the choice of hoping to restore from a save much earlier in the game or restarting entirely.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="a8pnm-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="a8pnm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="fnkka-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="fnkka-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="fnkka-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Summing Up:</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="4a00u-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="4a00u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="f6iv1-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="f6iv1-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="f6iv1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Story: (England/Historical 5/5) (Isu/Asgard 3/5). Combined and shortened the Asgard story would have been a better fit. The historical feel and setting of the Assassins' Creed games has always been the primary draw for me. At the end, I won't give anything away, you'll meet "someone" and I want you to send me a private message on who you think it is. Its pretty damn obvious but don't cheat and look at IMDB.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="c5s3b-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="c5s3b-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="5cvb3-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="5cvb3-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="5cvb3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Graphics: 5/5 Holy Shit level of graphics. I would say the environments make the graphical part of this game far more than other entries. Hell, it may be worth playing on the graphics alone. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="dgg5u-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="dgg5u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="a86jp-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="a86jp-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="a86jp-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Sound: 4/5 hen will game developers learn that while music is super important (and if you don't fall in love with the battle songs during the raids than you have no soul) but when it over does the important story dialogue you have an issue. Just turn it down a notch during cut scenes, that's all I'm asking.</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="cgsl6-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="cgsl6-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="3ifud-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="3ifud-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3ifud-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Control: 4/5 for me; I always feel like it could be a little better and I still think the best combat was AC II. Great innovations though. Now others here, mileage may vary. I was very, very lucky and encountered only one major bug and I found a quick way around it. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="614le-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="614le-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="1ja25" data-offset-key="c7uog-0-0" style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="c7uog-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="c7uog-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">One final note: In its inexorably march toward becoming an RPG over a stealth game, the AC series now includes that dreaded MMO staple of seasonal festivals. These are more than annoying and the Yule one produced fantastic bugs (the worst I encountered in the game). Well, I ignore festivals in my MMOs so you better believe I ignore them in my Assassins' Creed games.</span></div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2021-04-11T18:08:55Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=840http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=84Star Wars Squadrons
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/83-Star-Wars-Squadrons.html
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Let's talk about Star Wars Squadrons tonight.</div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Star Wars Squardons is the return to in-cockpit Star Wars Starfighter combat that we haven't had in several years. Story mode puts you in the role of both an Imperial pilot and a Rebel/Republic pilot. Your individual squadrons run missions in a creative "against the other" faction storyline that brings in guest stars from other Star Wars media. Squadrons has a PVE/PVP mode where you can join with other players or friends and meet the enemy in dogfighting or in an assault to take out the other's capital ship.</div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The story for Squadrons is just about ten hours. Its a <strong>good</strong> story and it follows the usual Star Wars tropes but the shortness was a little disappointing. Another con to the story is how it is set up. You start in your hanger, talk to your squadmates, go to briefing, fight, rinse repeat. Its the Wing Commander pattern from the 90s and I think 20 years on we're past that level of simplicity. </div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Squadrons really shines in its graphics, especially its VR support. It is an amazing VR flight game as much as it is flat screen. The ships are rendered beautifully and the combat is instinctual and intuitive. Environments are fantastic; stellar phenomenon, planetary bodies, all sorts of challenges and hazards abound and it is rare that it makes your video card hate you. That's important to a PC player.</div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The sound and audio of Star Wars Squadrons are what you'd expect from a AAA game. Fantastic voice acting including two special guests that I won't spoil here. </div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">The controls are a hot mess. I'm not even going to pad it. It has HOTAS support but expect to have to reset or bind everything. Some bindings make sense but others are a nightmare. The configuration refers to joystick buttons which in my case, my HOTAS has actual names for those buttons, not numbers. It led to a lot of guess work and I know I don't have everything down pat even months later. Targeting sub systems of the capital ships is a freaking nightmare.</div><br />
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<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Online/PVP mode is challenging in a good way. It all depends on your skill level as a pilot and practice is quite recommended. Hell, its required. It is a game best shared with friends!</div><br />
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<div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql ii04i59q" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; white-space: pre-wrap; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Summing Up:</div><br />
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Story: 3/5. Great story but poorly executed in an early 90s format.</div><br />
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Graphics: 5/5: If you can, you have to play in VR. You FEEL like a starfighter pilot. Its amazing.</div><br />
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Sound: 5/5: I rarely have bad things to say about video game sound. But you know I love voice acting and when it involves some really cool characters from Star Wars and its the right voices: HUGE PLUS.</div><br />
<div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Controls: 2/5: Waaaaay too disjointed. The first hour of your game play is going to be binding, experimenting, and rebinding controls. What's absolutely disappointing in the controls is that some of the functions don't even have a default binding on ANY controller to begin with. Just...wow.</div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2021-03-29T00:49:39Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=830http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=83Friday the 13th The Video Game
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/82-Friday-the-13th-The-Video-Game.html
<div data-block="true" data-editor="11oog" data-offset-key="6rssn-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="6rssn-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="6rssn-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">If you saw my feed tonight you got to watch me play Friday the 13th. The first three rounds I played went very well; I was the second to last to bite it the first time and then the last to bite it in the second. The third I was Jason and I got more than half of the counselors before an annoying-ass little kid beat feet with the other two in a car. This brings me to the one feature that REALLY turns me off about Friday the 13th. The voice chat. Despite there being a mute setting and a volume setting for the voice, you can't turn it off. I don't want to hear teenie boppers talking shit. If I wanted to do that I'd play Call of Duty. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="2r99m-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="2r99m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="11oog" data-offset-key="9sm3l-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="9sm3l-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="9sm3l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The game itself is a surprising amount of fun; You semi-randomly end up as a counselor or as Jason and your goal is to kill or survive and escape. There are numerous unique skills and you can, if you're ballsy enough, fight back. If you do get a melee weapon. Firearms suck.</span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="11oog" data-offset-key="2am9m-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="2am9m-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="2am9m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="11oog" data-offset-key="8gnq9-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="8gnq9-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="8gnq9-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I got a little bitter on the stream regarding the Pick Up Group and voice functions and I got a little bitter here as well so it would be great if I knew some folks who played. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="35s52-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="35s52-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="11oog" data-offset-key="eopc3-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="eopc3-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="eopc3-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Beyond being badly gimped by a lawsuit the game is a great piece of nostalgia for the lovers of the Jason Vorhees. And right now, through Halloween, it is $9.95ish on Steam!</span></div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Camping, 2019-10-31T02:18:08Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=820http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=82Streaming Schedule for the Next Two Weeks
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/81-Streaming-Schedule-for-the-Next-Two-Weeks.html
<div data-block="true" data-editor="3k6rt" data-offset-key="8v2u8-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="8v2u8-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="8v2u8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">So while I haven't had the wherewithal to work on the games for review (Shadow of War is just boring) I've been doing a lot of streams and theme weeks. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="862b8-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="862b8-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="3k6rt" data-offset-key="3japm-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="3japm-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3japm-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">No theme this week though next week will be 3rd person gaming week with AC: Unity, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and likely Dungeons & Dragons: Demon Stone</span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="9n623-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="9n623-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="3k6rt" data-offset-key="e0lg-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="e0lg-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="e0lg-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The FOLLOWING week in celebration of Halloween will be Horror Game Week with The Secret World: Legends on Monday, Dark Fall: The Journal, on Tuesday, TBD on Wednesday, and to celebrate Halloween my 2nd Annual Halloween with Michael Myers in Dead By Daylight.</span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="3k6rt" data-offset-key="26hnc-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="26hnc-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="26hnc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">To get a jump on my streams you can look me up @ https://mixer.com/aurachad74 where you can sign up for free and follow me and come chat with me or you can do the same over on https://www.twitch.tv/aurachad, also a free sign-up (and please follow me there!) </span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="3k6rt" data-offset-key="bcj4l-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="bcj4l-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="bcj4l-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Streams start between 8:00 and 8:30 PM Eastern Time.</span></div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-10-16T03:07:00Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=810http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=81The Order of the Kraken Falls
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/80-The-Order-of-the-Kraken-Falls.html
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<div data-offset-key="4lqvl-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="4lqvl-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">The Order of the Kraken has fallen!</span></div><br />
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Our heroes have dealt the final deathblow to the Order of the Kraken and ended a smuggling and slaving ring once and for all between Vratra and Hessel. The first of the tasks from the Church of Tarkahnnan complete they've now set sail for an island long rumored to hold an artifact of the moon goddess, Pymor. An artifact that The Scythe of Tarkahnnan has declared that he wants retrieved before he'll give them the secrets of the night of Darkfall.</span></div><br />
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<div class="_2cuy _3dgx" data-block="true" data-editor="b6djh" data-offset-key="fb6kr-0-0" style="white-space: pre-wrap; margin: 0px; padding: 6px 0px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="fb6kr-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="fb6kr-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">After a ten day journey into the open ocean south of the Narrian continent Mordecai and his party have arrived at the island. Making landfall in a region of gentle hills they make their way inland...</span></div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Aura: After Darkfall, 2019-10-05T04:01:52Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=800http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=80A (short) week of VR gaming
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/79-A-short-week-of-VR-gaming.html
<div data-block="true" data-editor="camgv" data-offset-key="3490u-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="3490u-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="3490u-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">My week (short one as it is) of VR games comes to a close as I won't be around Thursday or Friday night at all. </span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="camgv" data-offset-key="2d0mc-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="2d0mc-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="2d0mc-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Elite Dangerous: Beautiful game in VR. I recommend it to anyone with a headset. While I did frustrate the hell out of myself trying to learn mining I don't hold that against the overall experience. Combat in VR is so much more immersive and actually easier than combat on flat screen. The ability to look around and see your targets from all angles is a must for combat heavy commanders.</span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="camgv" data-offset-key="d21v1-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="d21v1-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="d21v1-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">No Man's Sky: BEAUTIFUL game. Stunning. Buggy as a motherfucker, though. Can't climb ladders more than once in a five minute period and there seems to be no mapping for the survey attachment to the visor. I almost have the hang of flight. I've been playing it for over a year and this game has screamed for a VR port forever. It got it, but it feels very kludged together. </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="ae6hi-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="ae6hi-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="camgv" data-offset-key="c8i7k-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="c8i7k-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="c8i7k-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">ST: Bridge Crew: Great night of gaming. This was my first VR game and I really should get back to playing it more often. Ron, Alan & I flew several missions and we succeeded on all of them. Though the last one was TIGHT (3% hull!). </span></div><br />
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<div data-offset-key="atfak-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="atfak-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><br data-text="true" /></span></div><br />
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<div data-block="true" data-editor="camgv" data-offset-key="fa87m-0-0" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<div data-offset-key="fa87m-0-0" class="_1mf _1mj" style="position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span data-offset-key="fa87m-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">There's a couple of VR horror games I've been keeping my eyes on. </span></div><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-08-29T02:26:01Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=790http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=79Assassins' Creed: Brotherhood Originally Published 6/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/78-Assassins-Creed-Brotherhood-Originally-Published-62017.html
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<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: inherit;">In 2010 Ubisoft gave us Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the second part of the Ezio Trilogy. Brotherhood opens up where Assassin’s Creed II left off; with Ezio at the bottom of the vault in the Vatican. After making his way home to a familial homecoming and meeting the Borgias strike again starting Ezio’s odyssey to permanently remove the Borgias from power in Rome.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">Over the course of the game, Ezio shatters Borgia control and works to restore the Assassin Brotherhood, ultimately ending in a showdown with Cesare “I’m the King of Italy” Borgia. It is a lofty storyline for a very loft game and it is executed damn near perfectly. Along the path to his final vengeance for his family and home, you’ll experience the growth of the Brotherhood, the shattering of a dynasty, and some of Ezio’s most personal memories. There is no better way to describe this game other than: HUGE. Yes, this game is huge. And yes, I know I described AC:II that way but Brotherhood blows that out of the water. Multiple threaded stories interact with Ezio’s liberation of Rome, an expansion of a previous mini-game, and the introduction of another that is absolutely entertaining.<br />Brotherhood reigns in the time advancement that made AC:II a little jarring (12 years pass between discovery of the vault’s location and entering it).</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">In addition to the story quests and side story quests, there are more skill challenges that made the exploration of Rome come to life though once again, the free-run quests remained annoying as hell. Ubisoft expanded on the property restoration aspect of AC:II allowing you to rebuild not only several dozen shops but also famous landmarks of Rome. In the end, if you complete this mini-game, you will own almost all of Rome after shattering Borgia influence throughout the districts. The new mini-game is completed by rescuing citizens in danger from Borgia’s army and training them to be assassins by either calling them to aid you in battle or sending them on valuable strategic missions in cities throughout Europe and Asia. If done fully to completion Ezio has a private army of assassins that are just as deadly as he is.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">The graphics for Brotherhood were similar to their predecessor, though now at least Ezio seems to age beyond his 20s finally. The landmarks, which is a hallmark of the series, were rendered to accurately look like their real world counterparts. I’m unfamiliar with Rome’s geography, but I believe this was Ubisofts first run at making the geography somewhere close to accurate.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">Likewise, the sound for Brotherhood is on par with previous entries and the voice acting was consistent and entertaining. <br />The controls are continually being refined at this point and the combat system is likely at its peak in this game. The chain “executions” work fantastically for crowd control and the guards frequently panic and surrender when you’ve just killed five of their friends in front of them in under 10 seconds. Unfortunately, the age of the separate button for tools is still a ways down the road.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">Summing Up:</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; display: inline; font-family: inherit;">Story: 5/5: As per the last run, this is a history buffs wildest dream. So much European history is delivered through this game including the decline of one of the most notorious families to have ever lived. The meta ending for Desmond this game is even more shocking than the last. Ezio is perhaps one of the most likeable video game protagonists ever and though we still know little about Desmond his place in the story to come is finally becoming clearer.<br />Graphics: 5/5: The upgrades were welcome and we finally are seeing some age progression. There’s even a joke about it early in the game when Ezio is referred to as a “man of your age.”<br />Sound: 5/5: Top-notch.<br />Control: 5/5: For my second run through it was a lot like sitting behind the wheel of an favorite car. The controls just work. Sometimes the accidental wall grabs when you run into one can be frustrating but it is the nature of the beast. Unfortunately, in a later entry, this gets A LOT worse.<br />Playability: 5/5: Yup. Perfect score. Ezio and his world remain fun and relatable. Not only relatable, but it is damn near believable. I mean sure, nobody ever parachuted off the Vatican in the 1500s but the basis of the story remains grounded in historical fact. ACII, Brotherhood, and Revelations, collectively known as the Ezio trilogy, remain very popular in the Assassin’s Creed series for these reasons.</p><br />
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After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:44:39Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=780http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=78The Seven Sins of MMOS
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/77-The-Seven-Sins-of-MMOS.html
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">For over 15 years now, MMOs have been a staple of my gaming life, though the first MMO I played was the beta test for Sierra’s The Realm from around 1996. (That game is still live, btw.) I began the world of paid MMOs with Earth & Beyond, which died an early death at the hands of EA, followed by Star Wars Galaxies (which died a horrible death at the hands of mismanagement by Sony and LucasArts (looking at you, Julio Torres)), followed by City of Villains (which died a lot later than it should have), GuildWars (Still going!), Lord of the Rings Online, Star Trek Online, DC Universe Online, the ever-lamented but sometimes fun Star Wars: The Old Republic (more EA mishandling), and Guildwars 2. I also tried a few others in there including Eve and The Secret World.</span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">What most of these games have in common is they’ve adapted a successful free to play model to attract more players. Unfortunately, with that model a few things happen that are drastically hurting the games. I present to you, my list of seven deadly sins of MMOs that I think will eventually cause the MMO market to collapse and bring rise to single-player games again.</span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">1. Dumbing down of content: There is a great rush now, to get everyone to the endgame content as fast as possible. In order to do this, whole swathes of content that were epic and difficult and required cooperation, planning, and teams are now solo-able and nuisances at best. I do respect there being solo options for some content but I should never be able to fight off a Mandalorian clan alone or flush a camp of Sauruman’s Uruk out of a stockade in Rohan while wearing a bathrobe. In addition to making content a little too easy (an insult to veteran players) some of the systems are brought to a point where the flavor of the game suffers. Making trainers obsolete and putting you on a path so that your skills are the same as everyone elses, for instance. Or making crafting so generic that it just isn’t fun anymore; or, with quest rewards making it obsolete altogether. For the veteran player, these sins are almost unforgivable. I don’t want my hunter to be like everyone else. I want to be able to make some extra in-game cash by selling unique bows. Oh, look, you’re taking BOTH away from me? Thanks.</span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">2. “Features” over World Building: This is a sin most epitomized by Guildwars 2. It is a technically advanced, beautiful game with the dullest, most convoluted story I’ve ever seen. They went a little too far with the open world content and because of it, the game is aimless and boring. This has improved since launch – the game is much less aimless. But it is still godawful boring. Just because a game is shiny and looks really cool doesn’t make it a good game. </span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">3. Pay to Win: This one didn’t use to piss me off but it has begun. So you have a game and you’ve earned an impressive rank in it and given equipment to reflect that status. Then the game goes free to play and suddenly they offer you better equipment for special “points” you can earn or buy. $50.00 worth of points. Then a few months later they say, “Hey, remember that equipment you bought? Here’s a better version. For another $50.00 worth of points.” It never ends. To get anything done, you need the new equipment. To get the new equipment, you need to spend more money or wait patiently as you accrue points (which you can’t do because you need the damn new equipment!). You wind up spending more than if the game had remained subscription based. I get it, that’s how they earn the money, but it is a huge bait and switch and I’m more than sick of it.</span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">4. Lack of Real New Content: This and #1 piss me off equally. So now that you’ve rushed me to the end game and you’re promising more content to keep me handing you money one way or the other, I expect the new content to be NEW content. Don’t reskin what is already reskinned content that was boring as hell the first time and try to tell me its new. Don’t add ridiculous team queues when the existing queues don’t get enough people to want to play them. Sit down, with actual writers and artists, and design new shit. I’m looking DIRECTLY at you, Star Trek Online. </span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">5. Bad PvP: Well, to me, honestly almost all PvP is bad PvP. I once likened PvP to jerking off. Sure it feels good but in the end what have you accomplished? PvP “matching” has become a thing (and a well-needed thing) but so many MMOs are forgetting how to do this right and are falling into the Call of Duty trap. Matching novices with people who have been playing the game for months or years and they’re getting rolled. How the FUCK is this fun? These simpleton twitch-gamers make a career out of griefing other people and miss out on the other 80% of a game and I cannot fathom why. For the games that do match appropriate level, bravo. I still rarely PvP and when I do it’s because I’m in a foul mood and I want to take a little bit of that out on someone else. </span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">6. Poor Growth Planning: This goes a bit with dumbing down content a little bit, but I think it deserves its own sin. So take Lord of the Rings Online, for example. The game is HUGE. The first “volume” of the main story deals with a set of quests that coincide with the Ringbearer. You know how it was hinted that there was a distraction going on to keep Mordor off the trail of the Fellowship at first? Yeah, you’re the distraction for the first part of the game. It should take you from area to area from level one and finish you out ready to go into Moria for level 50. Unfortunately, in their streamlining attempts, you are level 50 very quickly in areas meant for level 25 and if you go to the level 50 areas you’re missing a third of the game. There’s no risk/reward balance to keep you interested in the early content which lays down the foundation of the game. This has become a symptom of many games as they grow. They streamline things and then you grow too fast making what was once important and beautiful places to be a nuisance at best and outright skipped completely at worst. I have a guild mate who insists on skipping the entire last five “books” of the first volume and I’ve begun to dread playing with him because of it. </span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">7. Revamps of Mechanics that Aren’t Broken: This one has actually caused me to quit games (DCUO). Taking a mechanic that works fantastically and changing it is bad enough, but resetting all of my damn points over and over and over again until I spend half a night just resetting my character to a semblance of where he was not 24 hours before is unforgivable. Stop. It’s bad enough that to get to this point you’ve already committed the first sin, but then you top it off by making me have to reconfigure everything about my character is intolerable. Oh, and you make a feature that I worked my ASS off to get buyable by spending a “Point”? That’s just insulting.</span><br style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;" /><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Bonus Sin: Pandering to the WoW crowd. Stop trying to make your game like WoW. If I wanted to play WoW, I would. I’d rather play something with a bit more substance.</span>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:36:19Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=770http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=77Call of Duty: Ghosts Originally Published 5/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/76-Call-of-Duty-Ghosts-Originally-Published-52017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Call of Duty: Ghosts</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Ghosts revolves around Logan, (The PC), his brother Hesh, and their combat trained canine, Riley as they work with a group of special force soldiers known as Ghosts, due to their incredible stealth hit, hit, hit again, and walk away tactics. The South American nations have formed a Federation and take control of an American defense satellite causing mass destruction. The Ghosts are given the task to stop the Federation from making more of the weapon satellites and laying waste to the US at will. Most of Ghosts takes place on the west coast and in the jungles of South America. There are a few scenes involving more exotic locations.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Graphically Ghosts, which was released in 2015, is infinitely superior to the previous COD games The graphics are much more photo realistic and the action is smoother and more refined. Modern and some sci-fi weaponry round out the models.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Sound-wise, Ghosts lives up to its predecessors. Full voice Acting and realistic sounds permeate the game. A few big-name actors grace the cast as usual and, along with the graphics, give the illusion of a dystopic war movie.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The Control of Ghosts continues the COD nightmare. Sure, the character is easy to control, and the vehicles are a huge improvement from previous entries, but it remains the same, "Where the fuck am I being shot from?!?" and now adds a healthy dose of, "I can't tell the difference between my guys and the enemies" and "Where the fuck am I supposed to GO??!" The multi-player element of Ghosts remains the shit-show of mismatching that CoD is famous for. Whoever thought putting beginner players and matching them with kids who do nothing but play these games is a dick of the highest order.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing Up:</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Story: 5/5: It's a really good war story. It has a damn good plot and there are moments of genuine fun. <br />Graphics: 4/5: I'm knocking a point because you can't tell who the bad guys are a good chunk of the time, but outside of that top-notch.<br />Sound: 5/5: If a game has actors who actually you know--act--that can make the whole experience. As long as something else doesn't dick it up.<br />Control: 2/5: I'd give it a 1/5 if not for the novelty of playing as the dog and how goddamn fun the tanks were. Fuck the shark level. And really, consider a colonoscopy over the Multi-player. It'll be a more pleasant experience.<br />Playability: 3/5: A surprisingly high rating. The actual average is 4/5 but I'm docking a point for the MULTITUDE of control/interface issues just out of general principal. The story is great fun. I would watch it as a movie. I'd read it as a book. <br />I'd play it again as a better game. You get the idea. The game play is frustrating as all hell. Inability to see targets, inability to see goals, and suckiness of the Multi-Player hurt it (and most of the CoD games) irreversibly) In many ways it is better than previous entries, (I died a lot less this time so that was less frustrating) but in the battles even the simplest of stealth techniques fail you and in a game that's supposed to be about stealthy special force soldiers that's unforgivable.</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:35:31Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=760http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=76Mass Effect: Andromeda PC Version Originally Published May 2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/75-Mass-Effect-Andromeda-PC-Version-Originally-Published-May-2017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">And finally, we take a full look at the newest entry in the Mass Effect universe: Mass Effect Andromeda</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Andromeda opens with the races of the Milky Way sending chosen members of their species to Andromeda in an effort to explore, colonize, and conquer (if that's your thing). Beginning shortly after the events of ME:2, we pick up with the human ark some 600 years later as the ark crashes into an anomaly of dark energy that later becomes known as The Scourge. The members of the Andromeda Initiative soon find out that none of the other species' arks have arrived and the "golden worlds" they were promised are wastelands. The player Character, Ryder, takes on the role of Pathfinder and must find a way to create colony outposts, save the planets of the Heleus Cluster, make alliances with the native Angaram, stop the evil Kett, and reunite the disparate factions from the Initiative all while looking for the other arks. Whew...</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Andromeda's graphics are top notch, next generation for ME games. Environments are beautiful and even bring to mind a great many Star Wars locales. UNFORTUNATELY the games was released with goofy animations and they haven't all been fixed. It is not uncommon for another character's lips to move during someone else speaking. Some cut scenes are buggy and crash the game. I thought that was my own low-end computer than I found out it was happening to other people. Regardless, the game is beautiful and captivating.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Mood appropriate music accompanies Ryder on his mission and a fully voiced cast (a BioWare staple) complete the immersive environment. Listen for a few old friends during cut scene flashbacks. Clancy Brown figures prominently in the prologue and remains an important force throughout.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The game's controls are in line with the previous games. Simple, easy movement with a much improved combat, cover, and inventory systems. The Nomad exploration vehicle (the spiritual successor to the Mako) is just plain fun to drive and bounce from dune to dune, drift to drift, and crater to crater. The exploration harkens back to ME:1 with the Nomad but keeps the simplicity introduced in ME: 3. The quest journal system is vastly improved and allows for easy tracking and changing goals.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">See my previous post on Andromeda's multi-player aspect. i stand by it either being more refined that ME:3's or me simply not completely sucking. Probably a bit of both.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing Up:</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Story: 5/5: Absolutely engrossing story and characters that are genuinely likable. At the end make sure you talk to everyone for a really cool surprise!<br />Graphics: 3/5: While absolutely gorgeous, the animation issues cause this score to suffer a couple of points. Important to note: This game is NOT for kids. Holy alien T&A!<br />Sound: 5/5 I've come to expect NOTHING less from BioWare.<br />Control: 5/5: Great improvements incorporating what was great about the original trilogy and innovation at the same time! <br />Playability: 4.5/5: Even with its bugs the game is damn near a masterpiece. Get this game. Play this game. (Get it on PC and play with my friends and I!). Sure, you'll get a laugh out of the cross synched speech but I promise you, unless you are a complete sphincter, you won't care.</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:34:43Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=750http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=75Mass Effect 3 PC Version Originally Published 4/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/74-Mass-Effect-3-PC-Version-Originally-Published-42017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Continuing with the celebration of all things Mass Effect we take a look at Mass Effect 3, released in March of 2012. Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of the original trilogy and the climax of Commander Shepard’s campaign against the Reapers. It was touted as being driven by the decisions you made before and boasted a four player multi-player mode that tied directly into your success in the single player campaign.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The multi-player aspect took a lot of criticism because the game more or less forced you to play multi whether you wanted to or not in order to succeed properly against the Reapers. You literally could not “win” the game without playing several hours of multi-player either during or right before you started the final mission of the game. While not a huge fan of multi-player shooter games (honestly because I suck at them) I found it enjoyable enough to play and didn’t feel obligated at all.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The story of ME3 begins on Earth where Shepard is detained by Alliance command while they investigate his ties to Cerberus (from ME2). In short order everything goes to hell when the Reapers attack and Shepard is reinstated to lead the resistance and gather the multiple Citadel species to fight back. Early on, Shepard reunites with Dr. Liara T’Soni who has found a weapon that can stop the Reapers but it has to be built. Military readiness and the completion of this weapon becomes the focus of the game as Shepard struggles to unite the Milky Way by of course, doing everyone huge favors and saving them before anyone will agree to help save Earth.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The ending of the Mass Effect trilogy is the constant subject of scorn. Many people feel that the decisions and actions made in the previous games had no bearing on the third. Which they do; especially as to how you treat your crew effects who survives what disaster. How the Geth and the Quarians are treated in ME2 DIRECTLY influences events in ME3, for instance. The very outcome of the game depends on your diplomacy or aggression in the first two games.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Another criticism is the ending. A lot of folks don’t believe that Shepard would have made any of those choices. I would like to point out again what I said in the review for the original game. If you didn’t know this wasn’t going to have a Hollywood Happy Ending in the first five minutes of Mass Effect you weren’t paying proper attention. There was never going to be a happily ever after and I applaud the game and the developers for sticking to that. Sure, everyone wants to see Shepard run of with his/her mate and get rewarded, but that just isn’t in the cards and it wouldn’t have been appropriate to the tone of the story. Go read Shakespeare and some Homer and you’ll see the tradition that the Mass Effect Trilogy universe is based on.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The ME3 story is a natural progression for Shepard into becoming more than just a soldier, more than just a hero for hire, more than that lone voice calling for sanity. He becomes a true leader and brings out those qualities in his companions as well either for good or bad. The free DLC wrapping the story up in a bow is nice, but in my mind was unnecessary. Yes, I realize I’m in the minority.<br />The graphics for ME3 have undergone a few upgrades. It is overall brighter feeling (even with the dark tone of the story). The sound maintains BioWare’s commitment to fully voiced games. Everyone returns to their roles one last time. It feels more than a bit like homecoming.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The control aspect of ME3 has a couple of improvements; most notably that the cover function seems to have finally gotten a good streamlining. The remainder of the basic controls stays on par. The exploration system took the biggest change here. The flight and general star system exploration remains the same as ME2 but the annoying scan for minerals is now gone. The only difficulty in the exploration system is alerting Reapers to your presence and having a limited amount of time to search for hidden items before getting jumped and auto-losing the game. I can deal with the getting jumped, but auto-losing if engaged by a Reaper is a bit much.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing Up:<br />Story: 5/5: I am very proud of BioWare sticking to their guns and not caving into pressure to Hollywoodize the ending of the Mass Effect Trilogy. It isn’t a happy ending, but it is a fitting one.<br />Graphics: 5/5: Subtle improvements over ME2 make the game continue to be superior. Honestly, the graphics in ME3 are better than ME Andromeda in my opinion.<br />Sound: 5/5: Staying on top in this category seems to be BioWare’s thing. <br />Control: 4/5: It is a very smooth and polished game to play. The multi-player and single player fighting isn’t frustrating nor is it a frag-fest for twitch players like the CoD games. As far as shooters go, the ME series is one of the best. Does suffer from a mildly lackluster exploration system with a frustrating penalty. <br />Playability: 4.75/5: To give you a idea of what I think of this game, I was in the middle of playing it for the third time through when Andromeda came out.</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:33:56Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=740http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=74Batman: A Tell Tale Series Originally Published April 2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/73-Batman-A-Tell-Tale-Series-Originally-Published-April-2017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">I had been hoping to get my hands on Batman A Telltale Series for some time but I wanted the full season rather than just episode by episode. I was very pleased to get my hands on it this past weekend.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Batman A Telltale Series is a re imagining of the early years of Batman done by the creators of the popular Walking Dead Telltale games. It introduces several of the Bat’s rogues gallery including Penguin, Joker, Two Face, and a new villain, Lady Arkham. Their stories, all interwoven, are well thought and well-crafted giving them a very believable depth. The main story, surrounding Bat/Bruce, Catwoman, and the crime syndicates in Gotham are far from canon and take a novel approach to Bruce’s parents. I can’t say I 100% like the approach to Thomas Wayne, but it allowed for some splendid character building moments throughout the game. I can’t say too much without risking a spoilers for the people who haven’t played it but I will say if you like your Batman stories to be on canon 100% and the Wayne’s be saints who walked among us, this game is not for you. If you’re okay with the Wayne’s as deeply flawed individuals, by all means, keep going. Be ready, though, for you are Bruce Wayne as much as you are Batman in this game. There’s even a few situations where you have to decide who can handle the story best, Bruce or Bats.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The graphics and art for the game invoke a mixture between the animations in Batman the Animated Series and comic panels. Likewise, the sound and voices do invoke The Animated Series to a degree (I would swear for Harvey they actually got Richard Moll to do the Two-Face voice while using a different actor for Harvey, but IMDB says differently). The music lacks the iconic oomph that Danny Elfman gave us but it becomes a living part of the story, anyway. The voice acting was very well done; the now traditional dual Bruce/Batman voice was kept up. Personally, I would have liked it better if Kevin Conroy did the voice but the man can’t be Batman all the time, right?</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The controls for the game were a little awkward. Most of the control was button mashing at the right time and aiming and firing. The aiming and firing was on occasion a little too fast but it is more an interactive comic than it is an action game so quirky controls can be forgivable. The investigation mechanic is damn near genius. As you spot clues you can link them together to form the narrative of the crime scene. At least one scene seems to have more than one solution leading you on a different branch of the story. The bad bit here is this: The game is buggy as hell. Sometimes reading clues will shut other clues off and they just happen to be the clue you actually need to look at. You wind up having to restart from a save because there’s no way out of the frozen investigation. You can’t back out and you can’t read the final clue. Also, for the first three episodes, the game would hang during the credits/choices screen forcing me to have to home button out and go back in and reload the whole game. Thankfully that never hurt my progress.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing up:<br />Story: 4/5: Great story but a little loose with the Wayne canon. I didn’t like the changes at first but got into the spirit of it, remembering that DC Comics is bigger on alternate realities than JJ Abrahms. And DC does it right.<br />Graphics: 4/5: Well drawn mix of video game and comic feel. Imagine a “motion comic” with actual motion and some contrast and definition.<br />Sound: 5/5: Well done. And I’m not even knocking off a point for not having my generation’s Batman as the voice.<br />Control: 3/5: Getting past the quirky controls the bugginess of the interface takes away from some of the enjoyment. QC is more than just a cute, corporate buzzword.<br />Playability: 4/5: I enjoyed the game. I enjoyed how after each episode they ranked your choices with other players. I plan on going back and replaying some of the episodes to see how it turns out with different choices. (Hm…I think there’s one you can pick where Bruce goes corrupt…)</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:32:38Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=730http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=73Call of Duty: Black Ops Originally Published 4/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/72-Call-of-Duty-Black-Ops-Originally-Published-42017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Call of Duty: Black Ops</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Where to start? Black Ops is a 2010 first person shooter revolving around Alex Mason, a government operative, his handler, Jason Hudson, and a Russian defector named Viktor Reznov. The main story of the game stretches from the Bay of Pigs Invasion through The Cuban Missile crisis with a few flash backs to WWII as Mason relives his missions so that a mysterious interrogator can discover the source of an impending Soviet attack.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The story behind the ca<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">mpaign of Black Ops is rather well done and intriguing. Mason is likable and his friendship with Reznov is actually fairly relevant in today's political climate. The blend of fiction and non-fiction history is well done and engaging.</span></p><br />
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1c1e21; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;"><br />
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: inherit;">Graphically Black Ops has some superior aspects. The animation is very lifelike and the backgrounds and characters are realistic, and crisp. Where it does suffer is it forgets that it is a game and not actually a war. The multitude of weapons are well researched and accurate looking.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">Realistic sounds and excellent voice acting guide you through Black Ops. The background music is often the music of the time with a generous splattering of The Rolling Stones.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">The controls of the game is where it falls short. It is a standard FPS control scheme as long as you're on foot. On the couple of instances where you're controlling a vehicle is gets a little clumsy but I won't lie, the helicopters are fun. Now where the game's controls fall hard is that THIS is where it forgets its a game. It is often completely impossible to tell where you are being shot from, and more often than not the "grenade warning" indicator simply does not work. It becomes very frustrating, very fast.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">The multi-player component of the game is a complete fuck-show. It has what has got to be the worst matching I've ever seen. It throws first level new players in with max level players and the people who play this to max level are not patient, they are not well mannered, and frankly, they're mostly dicks. Nothing but a bunch of foul-mouthed 12 year olds who for the sake of the genome should never reproduce.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: inherit;">Summing up:<br />Story: 3/5: Well done and integrates history and fiction. I am knocking two points off for the fuck-show that is multi-player.<br />Graphics: 5/5: Very well done.<br />Sound: 5/5: Anytime you are piloting a river boat to the tune of Fade it Black you know you're in for a good ride.<br />Controls: 2/5 I don't care if it is a war game. Give me a goddamn radar. It is a game, not war.<br />Playability: 3.75/5: I remember reading shortly after the COD games began that it was inducing flashbacks in some veterans. I never verified that, but I could believe it. it is very realistic and very frustrating. It certainly elevated my blood pressure.</p><br />
</div>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:31:42Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=720http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=72Assassins' Creed II Oriignally Published 3/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/71-Assassins-Creed-II-Oriignally-Published-32017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Assassin’s Creed II picks up where the first left off, with Desmond Miles a prisoner of Abstergo. After his liberation by the Assassins he is put back into an Animus to discover the mystery of the location of another Piece of Eden found by his Renaissance ancestor, Ezio Auditore, a minor nobleman from Florence who is thrust into the life an assassin after a personal tragedy. Spanning from 1476, when Ezio was only 17 and continuing to 1499 it covers Ezio’s quest for revenge and justice throughout Renaissance Italy. For a history buff this game is a dream come true. So many events are touched on and woven into the AC narrative that it becomes believable history. As Ezio removes the conspirators against him it is important to remember that he removing very real people on the very real day and time of their deaths – most of them under mysterious consequences.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The historical advance only becomes jarring when Ezio finds the final goal of his quest and actually acting on it. Standing in a villa in Italy he discovers he needs to go to Rome. This takes place in 1487. He arrives in Rome in 1499. 12 years? I find it hard to swallow.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">There is so much more ground to cover in AC II. Literally. This game is HUGE. Ezio visits Florence, Tuscany, Venice, Forli, and Rome. He meets a small army of allies including notable figures such as the Medici family, DaVinci, Machiavelli, and several others. Again: This is a history buff’s wet dream. And at the end of the story, at the risk of offering a spoiler, Ezio confronts none other than Rodrigo Borgia (google it if you don’t know) in a confrontation worthy of any modern comic-book movie.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The free-run race quests are a little annoying but easily forgivable.<br />AC II also added the mini game experience. In this one you’re responsible for upgrading the town in which Ezio’s family villa is located bringing in tourists and income. You can use that income to supplement your own. Upgrades include opening shops, restoring buildings, and turning the Auditore villa into a gallery of art, weapons, and armor.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The graphics for AC II were very good an on par for 2009. The only thing that takes away from it is that nobody ages. Beyond Ezio in 1476 being 17 and then in 1481 looking a little more like an adult he never ages. His mother never ages. His sister never ages. Leo never ages.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The voice acting is superior this go-around. Much to my relief the hero this time actually HAS an Italian accent. And one of the neater things about the voice in the game is they’ll often say phrases in Italian with the English translation in subtitle. My vocabulary of Italian insults tripled playing AC II! Music is consistent with mood and the environment. Lute music, flutes, violins etc… It is mood setting music and mood adapting music. <br />The controls are standard for an Assasin’s Creed game, but what was new was the combat system. The combat system in AC II and the remaining “Ezio” games was by far the best combat system of the entire series. I would have liked a separate button for the special tools such as smoke bombs, but it was easily the most useful combat system in any of the series. Far better than the nightmare of combat that comes in AC III (later on that). The jumping puzzles aren’t too “jumpy” and the climbing and running is a lot smoother than the first outing. Damn near perfect.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing Up:</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Story: 4/5: A revenge/justice chase across the Italian Renaissance mixed with a pretty good history lesson. I’m ticking one point off only for the jarring passage of time. The ending, though, is worth the price of admission alone; both for Ezio and the meta ending with Desmond.<br />Graphics: 4/5: I’ve seen the animated movies based off the AC II graphics and there are times when it hits the uncanny valley. That carries into the game and into the cut scenes. The only off is that the characters, though progressing 23 years, never age.<br />Sound: 5/5: Absolutely what you want in a game.<br />Control: 5/5: I wish the newer games had kept this control set. I really, really do.<br />Playability: 4/5: Assassin’s Creed II is one of the most enjoyable of the series (likely my second favorite – even as the games become more technologically advanced. Ezio is a charming and relatable protagonist and his quest speaks to every human in some way, shape or form.</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:30:58Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=710http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=71Borderlands 2 Originally Published 3/2017
http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/70-Borderlands-2-Originally-Published-32017.html
<p style="margin: 0px 0px 6px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">So one way or the other I will be done with Borderlands 2 tonight so I figured to give this a go.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Borderlands 2 is a 2012 first person shooter/rpg from the people who brought us the Bioshock series and of course, the original Borderlands. Borderlands 2 returns to Pandora for more action in the wilderness against bandits, robots, and megalomaniacs.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Borderlands 2 opens some five years after the end of Borderlands. Handsome Jack, the president of the Hyperion Corporation has found another vault on Pandora and it taking steps to open it sooner than 200 year to release a dragon-like abomination, the Warrior,to wipe out the bandits and creatures of Pandora to make it into a paradise. Wait...we want to stop that? Well yes, because Jack is a prick and tried to kill you after luring you to Pandora. Wait, what? Yeah, ,Jack, as part of his master plan lures new vault hunters to Pandora to kill them. Risking if one lived they would come back and try to stop him. But if he didn't lure him there, he'd already crippled the resistance against him and there would have been nobody to stop him. Again: Wait, what?!? Why would he do that? Why would he take the risk? I don't know, but that's where the fundamental story breaks. Sure, there's plenty of the juvenile humor that made Borderlands so much fun; a lot more of it. Crammed down your throat at all times. Constantly.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The controls for Borderlands 2 closely match the original except for the redone inventory system. The original's inventory system made more sense and was far more intuitive, but after some time this one grows on you. Though why it can't default on the weapon type sort is beyond me. Player skills are more diverse allowing for a more customized game play and there's a "badss" rank system that helps to enhance your skills. My complaint from Borderlands about the driving system seems to have been addressed to a degree - the driving while controlled the same is not as haphazard as the first.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Sound in Borderlands 2 is still top notch. Returning actors voice the citizens of Pandora and the original crew of vault hunters return as NPCs to support and give missions. The music helps set the mood as always and isn't obtrusive.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">The cell shading technique in Borderlands was enhanced for this outing, making it look even more like a comic book. At times in this game it <strong>is</strong> off putting. It can make it difficult to see targets in the background at times. At other times, it makes it easier to see than the photo realistic graphics can, especially at "night"" While I didn't like the style as much it is still novel and fresh and I appreciate it for what it is.</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Summing Up:</p><br />
<p style="margin: 6px 0px 0px; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; background-color: #ffffff;">Story: 3/5: The story is fun and who doesn't like the old revenge trope, but don't expect Shakespeare. <br />Sound: 5/5: Another excellent job. <br />Grapics: 3.5/5: I don't like the cell shading style used. I think its a little cheesy, but I appreciate it for what they were trying to do with it.<br />Controls: 4/5: Good control but I miss the old inventory system.<br />Playability: 2.5/5: Sure the average is closer to 4 on this one, but I'm taking a couple of points off and here's why:<br />The game is shockingly hard in spots. Assininely hard to the point where I'm pretty certain the developers were trolling me. Difficulty and level and available weapons and equipment are not congruous and the game around level 25 becomes so tedious just to walk five feet that it ceases being fun. Respawn costs a lot of money and it is easy, in the hundreds of times you will die to find yourself constantly flat broke. A full week of my playing was picking off people in Lynchburg for 20 minutes and then jumping to three gun machines to see if anything better was available so I could continue in earnest. Video games should not feel like a job and this one did.</p>
After Darkfallnospam@example.com (Chad Moore)
Chad's Video Game Reviews, 2019-07-27T18:30:17Zhttp://www.auralive.com/serendipity/wfwcomment.php?cid=700http://www.auralive.com/serendipity/rss.php?version=1.0&type=comments&cid=70