Author Archives: thebonusworld

Blog: Wake Me Up Cefore You Go-Go – 11/14/18

What may seem like an unfortunate typo in the title of this blog, is actually some of the most clever wordplay ever used in the history of words. Don’t try and deny it. There’s this game that’s actually called Cefore that I’ve been dipping in and out of between sessions of Red Dead Redemption 2, and it’s been a real nice palette cleanser.

Cefore is a physics-based puzzle game that tasks you with harvesting these big blue blocks that are scattered across level. To move these blocks you’ll utilize your arsenal of tools to either directly impact the blocks or the obstacles around them. Is the blue block on top of a tall stone pillar? Well some dynamite will certainly send it tumbling to the ground. Is the block in a hole? Perhaps using a hot air balloon will solve that problem.

I haven’t played too much of Cefore yet, but from what little I have it seems like a neat little experience. The controls are a little weird and restarting a level isn’t as quick as I would like, but these are minor inconveniences at best. So far I’m enjoying my time with it as it provides a decent challenge while allowing me the freedom to solve things the way I like. I personally choose the most explosions.

Blog: Best in The West – 11/07/18

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This one is gonna be a short one folks, I really don’t have much of anything else to talk about outside of one particularly massive cowboy-themed game. That’s right, I’m talking about Red Dead Redemption 2 once again.

At this point I’ve completed all the chapters of the story and am currently sweeping up the seemingly endless amount of side activities. I’m suffering from Breath of The Wild syndrome with this game, which is to say that I’m just picking a direction and going. While you’re not always rewarded in the same way Zelda did, Red Dead Redemption 2 does a pretty good job of getting you out into the world and sightseeing.

Sometimes there’s an animal that needs hunting, or a stranger that needs shooting, or just some weird cabin where some fucked up stuff went down. Red Dead Redemption 2 manages to exist in the space where it can be enormous without feeling bloated and that’s no small task.

Take a look at Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for instance. It also boasted a gigantic world with lots to explore and see, but ultimately handed out experiences in a checklist format. It felt more like crossing items off of a shopping list than just organically discovering something.

Maybe that’s what I like so much about Red Dead Redemption 2, the fact that once I learned to embrace the “walking through molasses” pace of the game, I found it rewarding to just get lost in the vast expanse. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go wander in the woods and try not to get my ass chomped off by a bobcat.

Blog: YeeHalloween – 10/31/18

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A big howdy to all of my buckaroos out there, it’s the spookiest time of the year and somehow cowboys are involved. But you knew that already, hell, the entire world knows it judging by the over 700 million dollars Red Dead Redemption 2 made in its opening weekend. While I agree with the vast majority of critics that the game is exceedingly well made, it feels weird heaping this amount of praise on it in lieu of the information around Rockstar Game’s labor practices.

I feel that it should be mentioned to remind players of what was given to make Red Dead Redemption 2 such a colossal game. While I wholeheartedly believe that people in the games industry need protections from abusive work environments, you can see the fruit of that labor in every inch of the game itself.

That’s why it’s so weird to talk about Read Dead Redemption 2 and highlight the incredible amount of detail that’s on display in it. We know what it took to get a game that big and diverse to exist. I guess if I wanted to put a neat little bow on this train of thought, I’d simply say this: I really like Red Dead Redemption 2 thus far, and I’m extremely grateful for the amount of work that went into it.

So with all that being said, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a phenomenal game that very occasionally drives me insane. There is so much to highlight that I won’t even try to cover it here, but the thing I’d most like to emphasize is the world Rockstar has created. Every nook and cranny of the map seems meticulously planned and constructed in a way to either set you up for an interesting encounter, or let you fill in the blanks and construct a narrative about what has happened.

An example of the latter would be the time I came across a run down shack in the woods. Inside were several bunks of beds lining the walls each with a long decomposed corpse lying in it. At the far end of the room was an ornate desk with empty potion bottles strewn about. There was another corpse sitting in a chair wearing what looked like some sort of religious garb. To me, it looked like I’d entered the final resting place of a cult that had “ascended” and passed on. I don’t know for sure that was the case, but in my mind this was the home of cowboy Heaven’s Gate.

It’s little details like this that fill the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 that make me so eager to spend more time with it. Everything else seems to take a backseat to just inhabiting this space for me. The world itself doesn’t seem to exist in service of my character, but rather it exists despite him. And that’s the aspect of Red Dead that I love so much, this feeling of not being the center of attention and that inserting yourself into every situation is a good way to get gunned down.

It took me some time to adjust to the overall pace that Red Dead Redemption 2 operates at, but I’m glad I did because this game is something truly special. Special in the way that the house that gives out full sized candy bars on Halloween is special. And that’s the Halloween tie in. We did it.

Blog: Off-Week – 10/24/18

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So here’s the thing, I didn’t really prepare much of anything to write about this week and I don’t quite feel like phoning it in more than I already am. But there is a reason for all of this, something I’m sure I’ve spoken about before. I just haven’t really played anything of note since last week.

Well, that isn’t entirely true. I did play some Call of Duty Black Ops IIII which was a lot of fun for the few hours I spent with it, but it didn’t leave me wanting to return to it in a meaningful way. Like, it’s fun in the way that Call of Duty always has been, but it didn’t manage to grab me the way the older games did. I know exactly why that is too.

The simple answer is that I don’t have the time or the desire to really get into Black Ops IIII. It’s a really fun experience that I wouldn’t mind dipping into from time to time, but the military shooter genre itself isn’t really doing it for me the way it did ten years ago. I have plenty of good memories of playing these types of games from the past, but these days I find myself wanting a more insular and solitary experience.

It’s why games like Super Smash Bros Ultimate and Fallout 76 are doing absolutely nothing for me. It’s because I just want to play a game by myself, and experience it at my own pace. I almost made the mistake of buying the latest Jackbox Party Pack because I wanted to play the game where you make robots rap battle, but then I remembered that I’d never get the chance to actually play it.

More to the point though, I think the real reason I haven’t played anything this week is because of what is arguably the biggest release of the year being so close to being out. With Red Dead Redemption 2 mere days away, I’ve found it hard to want to play anything but that. It’s one of the first times in a long while that I’ve felt this “hype” for a game that’s demolished my will to touch anything else. I’m sure by next week I’ll post something about Red Dead Redemption 2 and title it in a ridiculous fashion. Something like, “Yeehalloween” or some shit.

Blog: The Bloated Assassin – 10/17/18

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For many years, I’ve heard people clamoring for the Assassin’s Creed franchise to take a break and find its footing once more. In 2016, Ubisoft decided it was finally time to pump the brakes and try to reinvigorate the tried and true formula they’d used for so long. The result was the critically acclaimed Assassin’s Creed Origins. Fast forward, and we’re face to face with the second game built on this new foundation, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

In another place, at another time, I could see myself getting really into Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and its massive world and wide variety of systems. There is seriously a ridiculous amount of things to do in this game, from taking down outposts, to hunting mercenaries in a stripped-down Shadow of Mordor fashion, to recruiting people to sail with you on your ship and sending them on missions. Those three things alone are concepts you could build full games off of, but in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, they’re optional missions.

That isn’t entirely true though. See, while these side activities didn’t seem particularly mandatory for me to engage with, it became apparent that I will have to spend time with them if I want to progress through the game. I recently got to a point where I was informed that the man I was to assassinate in the story, was about a level 12. This was an issue, cause I was a lowly level 9 assassin, incapable of stabbing through a loaf of bread, let alone a man. Then I realized what made Assassin’s Creed Odyssey such a lengthy experience. Aside from being genuinely huge, it also requires a certain amount of grinding to be able to progress, which for me is a bummer.

Just look at the estimated completion times in this thing!

On top of all of that bloat, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is just a little rough around the edges in general. There’s this weirdness with the combat in that it feels a little loose and unwieldy at times, from animations not lining up right, or the camera moving around in less than helpful ways when you’re trying to parry attacks. There was a moment where I was trying to hand in a quest, but the person who I was to talk to was fighting a wolf. Upon defeating the beast, he turned his aggression towards me and just attacked. So I retaliated in the only way I knew how, and kicked him off the side of a mountain. It was funny, but I could have used the experience instead.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a dense game that’s going to take a long time for you to get through. Even though it’s bloated and slowly paced, and even though it’s clunky at times, I’m still having fun with it. There are times when you’re stalking your prey through a compound, and everything just works and flows in a way that makes you feel like a competent assassin.

Blog: Run it Back Cowboy – 10/10/18

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With the sequel on the horizon, I figured it was now or never for me to revisit Red Dead Redemption and bask once more, in its glory. Hypothetically, this all should’ve gone off without any issues, but of course that wouldn’t be the case. Somehow, I had misplaced the power-brick for my Xbox 360, which was kind of a problem because I was pretty sure consoles needed electricity to operate. Luckily my local GameStop had one for six dollars, and it was smooth sailing from there.

Except for the fact that Red Dead Redemption didn’t age as gracefully as you might think. It’s still a phenomenal game, but the rough edges are a little more apparent, 8 years later. The thing that jumped out at me immediately was the consistent frame-rate dips. Like I mentioned, I’m playing this on my original Xbox 360 Elite, and the there have been plenty of instances where the entire game gets really sluggish. At most, it was an inconvenience

Something that definitely was a constant source of aggravation, was riding the horses. I don’t think any video game has really done horseback riding particularly well, and Red Dead Redemption is no exception. I’ve expressed in the past how a certain horse in The Witcher 3 is a hassle to ride, and I share most of the same frustrations with them as I do all of the horses in Red Dead. It’s just clunky and inelegant to ride these bad boys, and you have to do a lot of it.

But I did learn something new about Red Dead Redemption that I had never known before, which is that you can fast travel from just about anywhere and not just at stagecoaches. This was a fucking revelation for me. A random tutorial popped up and told me to use my campfire to travel somewhere, and it blew my goddamned mind. And you have unlimited campfires. That is insane and most definitely has made this impromptu play session much more tolerable.

There are a ton of little grievances I have with Red Dead Redemption, but as a package, it still stands as a monumental game. The story that it tells is (mostly) captivating and incredibly well told, and the characters are memorable and very well acted. The world itself is perfectly constructed to suit the setting and hammers home the feeling of isolation you’d imagine having when riding alone through the desert. While I’m happy I decided to revisit the game, it’s mostly just to distract me from the fact that we’re still a few weeks away from Red Dead Redemption 2.

Blog: Subscription Hell – 10/03/18

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Much like rearranging the furniture or throwing out a bunch of crap you’ve accumulated over the years, it felt nice to take stock of the subscriptions I had, and even better when I discarded the ones that I didn’t need anymore. But seeing how much money I was spending on services I barely used was a real eye opening experience.

For instance, I primarily play games on my PC, but up until about a month ago I was still paying for PlayStation Plus. I don’t think I’ve played any multiplayer games on my PS4 or even the “free” games you get, in a very long time. But every month, ten dollars would vanish from my bank account anyway.

Another one that I chopped off was my Humble Monthly subscription. In the past few months, the big flagship games that were promoted were all games that I already owned, and barely played as is. I’m also willing to bet that the October offerings are going to be of a significantly more spooky tone, and since I’m a wimp, I’m okay missing out on those too. Also, I already have too many games, I don’t need a service that’s going to just inundate me with more of them, as well as duplicates.

But it isn’t all bad, I still have various video streaming ones like Netflix and Hulu, but I use those way more often than anything I’ve listed thus far. I also have a portfolio site that I should probably cancel, because the amount of job offers I’ve received since making the damn thing has been zero. Oh, and let’s not forget the monthly blood money I pay to Adobe to use their suite of products.

This whole post kind of got away from me, but what I’m trying to impart upon you is that it feels good to take stock of your current situation. To step back and and really analyze where you are in this moment. It helped save me a couple of bucks and also gave me a little clarity, and I think we all could use a little more of both these days.

Blog: The Adventure Zone – 09/26/18

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Video games are great and all, but I’ve been in a kind of slump with them since I blasted through Marvel’s Spider-Man a few weeks back. Usually when I get into these kinds of ruts I’ll dive into a comfort food type of game, which for the past few months has been NBA 2k18. But for all the hours I’ve played of that game, not once have I had the in game audio turned up. Instead, I’ve been listening to what has quickly become my favorite podcast – The Adventure Zone.

The Adventure Zone is an actual play podcast where a group of individuals get together and play some sort of table-top game. In this case, The Adventure Zone‘s first campaign uses Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. While that may not sound like the most compelling sales pitch in history, The Adventure Zone stands head and shoulders above the other actual play podcasts I’ve listened to for a few reasons.

First of all, The Adventure Zone is a very personal show from its story, to its presentation, and even down to its hosts. The show stars the McElroy brothers, Griffin, Justin and Travis, as well as their father Clint. The McElroy brothers have an amazing back-and-forth that make for plenty of hilarious moments, while keeping the show moving at a brisk pace.

But it isn’t just the rapport between the actors that’s so engaging, the story itself quickly evolves from a basic D&D campaign, into one that goes in some truly ambitious directions. It isn’t just goblins and wizards with The Adventure Zone, it’s space stations, bank heists, and game show-esque nightmares that all play a part in weaving together the larger narrative that persists through the majority of a near 70 episode duration.

But the thing that really sealed the deal for me was the ambience and atmosphere that the DM, Griffin McElroy, was able to put into the show. As the show grew and the story progressed, Griffin started to produce unique soundtracks that he would layer into the show during pivotal moments that helped to underscore whatever was going on. It seems so small when you hear about it, but despite the fact that it added a unique personality to the show while putting great emphasis on pivotal moments, the music itself is really good.

The Adventure Zone plays fast and loose with the rules of D&D, focusing on telling a good story over fiendishly following the mechanics, which is something that greatly appealed to me. It was this loose style of gameplay, wonderful characters, and a truly engrossing story that fueled me to binge several episodes daily, eager to see what happened next in this phenomenal story.

I didn’t mean for this to be such a love-letter to The Adventure Zone, but it kind of turned into that didn’t it? I just wanted to express how much I enjoyed it and how much I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to hear a good story, regardless of their familiarity with D&D. The first few episodes are easily the weakest parts in the entire podcast (but still good in their own right), but once you’re through that it just keeps getting better. The Adventure Zone is the reason I got interested in Dungeons & Dragons as well as tabletop gaming in general, and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.

Blog: Shadow of a Doubt – 09/19/18

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Despite all of the trailers and marketing that surrounded Shadow of the Tomb Raider, it honestly surprised me when it was released last week. It kind of come out of nowhere for me. Having played the previous two entries, I was pretty excited to jump into Lara Croft’s newest adventure. Unfortunately, I was almost immediately put-off by the game in it’s opening hours.

The biggest thing that’s stuck with me from my few hours with Shadow of the Tomb Raider is just how unlikable Lara is this time around. The entirety of my play session was filled with moments of her being incredibly selfish and self-centered, putting her goals over the safety of her and those around her. Despite whether it’s true or not, she considers everything that happens a result of her actions and considers herself the only one who can stop the cataclysmic events taking place in the game.

In addition to her entire persona being weirdly off-putting, Shadow of the Tomb Raider just feels a little less polished all around. Some of the animations felt jagged and sometimes didn’t blend together well, leaving the action feeling a little stilted at times. There was also a surprising amount of audio desynchronization in almost every in-game cutscene. I even was hit with a pause while traversing between two parts of a level that said “WAIT FOR STREAMING,” which served as a stark reminder that I was playing on my launch PS4, and not a Pro.

None of these things on their own would be enough to deter me from playing more of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, but when combined, I just didn’t feel anywhere near the same level of motivation to continue that I had with other games this year. Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn’t a bad game by any stretch, but it just isn’t a game that I feel compelled to keep playing at the moment.

Review: Marvel’s Spider-Man

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It’s been a while since I’ve played a game that’s compelled me to devour it the way Marvel’s Spider-Man has. I frequently found myself racing from mission, to collectible, to crime scene and back again for hours on end, with the “just one more” mentality propelling me forward. But it wasn’t because these objectives were particularly interesting or exciting, rather it was because just being Spider-Man was fun, and I was willing to use any excuse to continue playing as him.

Marvel’s Spider-Man is kind of like a really good pizza with pineapple on it. You had this amazingly well-crafted pizza, but you went ahead and sprinkled some bullshit on top of it that made me enjoy it less. It wasn’t bad, but the toppings could have definitely been better. In this case, the presentation, mobility, combat and even the story are the pizza, and most of the side stuff is mediocre at best; just like pineapple on a pizza.

the stealth is simple, but satisfying

The mobility itself is phenomenal, striking a good balance between physics-based momentum, and fluid animations that blend together incredibly well. There are certain upgrades that allow you to add additional layers of complexity to your web-swinging that may seem superfluous at first glance, but the expanded move-set allows you to traverse New York City faster, and more stylishly than ever before in a Spider-Man game.

While the swinging mechanics are phenomenal, the combat in Marvel’s Spider-Man is just as well done. Combat is almost identical to that of the Rocksteady Batman games, even down to the button prompts for melee finishers. This isn’t a bad thing though, considering the Arkham games have fantastic combat that translates incredibly well to Spider-Man. The big differentiator here is the focus on airborne combat. Swinging kicks, launching uppercuts, ground-pounds, air-juggles and more, are all vital moves when facing Spider-Man’s foes. By the end of the game, I was chaining together massive combos that would rarely ever see me touch the ground, and it was easily one of the most satisfying aspects of my time with it.

“Spider-Man throws up gang signs.” – J. Jonah Jameson

All of these elements are crammed into a beautifully rendered, yet a little lifeless version of New York City. The story does a decent enough job to justify why gangs are having gunfights in the middle of Times Square, but it’s still a pretty big stretch to justify those actions. The story itself is a nice re-imagining of Spider-Man and his villains, remixing events and timelines to form something unique and interesting while also telling a fairly intimate story about Peter Parker and the people closest to him.

However, one of the biggest issues with Marvel’s Spider-Man stems directly from some of its missteps in translating the storytelling into compelling gameplay. In this version of the Spider-Man universe, Peter Parker and Mary Jane are no longer in a relationship, but are working together as colleagues to try and uncover the bigger mysteries in the game. What this results in is some very underwhelming stealth sequences as Mary Jane, where not only are you severely limited in your abilities, but you’re only course of action is to stay hidden. These sequences are incredibly promising concepts that rarely feel fleshed out and ultimately end up being some of the worst parts of the entire experience.

Divebomber-Man

But it isn’t just the stealth sequences that are less than stellar, a lot of the side activities you’ll do as Spider-Man aren’t exactly what I would call exciting either. Things like photographing landmarks, collecting old backpacks with Easter-eggs in them and research stations that make you traverse the environment differently, were fun to seek out and complete. But once you finish them, you’re left with drone hunts and bad “complete the circuit” mini-games which get really tedious, really quickly. If it wasn’t for the fact that completing these side activities provided you with specific tokens that unlock certain upgrades, they wouldn’t be worth doing at all.

It was the sheer act of just moving around as Spider-Man that was enough to keep me playing through the endless repeating side missions and incredibly dull stealth sections. That in itself is a testament to how well Insomniac Games nailed the feeling of being Spider-Man and combining that with a story that feels fresh, yet honors the legacy of the character. Despite its shortcomings, Marvel’s Spider-Man is still a tremendously fun game that no Spider-Man fan should miss out on.