Category Archives: archived articles

Early Impressions: Dauntless

Let’s just get the obvious comparison out of the way from the jump; Dauntless is basically a more streamlined, more accessible, Monster Hunter game that strips out a lot of the complexity. Because of this more simplistic approach, I’ve found myself gravitating towards Dauntless in a way that I didn’t expect.

For the uninitiated, Dauntless is a cooperative monster hunting game, in which you and your party go out into the world in search of various creatures to slash, smash and blast apart in an effort to collect their parts, and fashion more efficient monster dispatching weapons and armor.

The core loop is pretty straightforward and fun, but it’s the stuff around the edges that really do the heavy lifting in terms of appeal in my eyes.

I hate to keep drudging up this comparison, but it’s something I feel that’s important to highlight. Dauntless and Monster Hunter and two sides of the same coin, offering up similar experiences for different kinds of players. Monster Hunter relishes in the details and sweats the details in a way that Dauntless does not.

From the complexity of the world, the abilities you have at your disposal, item management and more, Monster hunter offers a more robust and granular experience. Which is great for the people who are looking for that. But for people like myself, with more of a curiosity about Monster Hunter, Dauntless provides an easier ramp for players new to the monster hunting genre.

From the jump, Dauntless gave the impression of being too shallow due to the size of the maps, the limited amount of missions, and lack of weapon variety. Instead of letting me choose from every available weapon from the start, I was limited to melee based armaments. After a few missions though, Dauntless revealed that it has ranged combat in the form of guns. It was a little thing, but the gentle slope of exposing more of the mechanics worked for me in a way that didn’t feel like over tutorialization, but encouragement to step out of the comfort zone it had helped me establish.

I also really appreciate the first few levels of upgrades and craftable items. Dauntless obscures a lot of the more complex options and doles them out at a pretty good pace. Early in the game, Dauntless introduces you to the idea of tonics that when consumed on a hunt, can offer different effects. The first one they show you is one that makes you faster for a period of time. And for a while, that’s one of the only things you can craft.

Whereas Monster Hunter feels like diving into the deep end of the pool, Dauntless is you gently wading into it. I’m still early in my time with Dauntless and have found a lot to love thus far, but that isn’t to say it’s without any faults.

So far, I’ve found that there’s less actual hunting, and more walking into the clearing where you can see the only other animated creature in it. It wasn’t until a little later on that the zones got bigger and more complex, but even then, there isn’t anything else moving in the world aside from you and the monster. Although I did wander around a zone for a while only to see a monster climb out the ground to attack me. It was neat, but the game might as well have just shoved us into a closed arena instead of making me wander aimlessly to trigger the beast.

I also found that there isn’t a lot of complexity or variety in your move-set. Maybe that changes later on, but up front, you have 2 or 3 combos per weapon, and a special ability or two based on how you kit your character out. I wouldn’t say the combat is boring, but it is repetitive. I’m sure that changes as the monsters get more varied and have more attacks and phases, but as it stands now, most fights break down into a war of attrition.

All things considered, I really am enjoying Dauntless. I don’t find it to be overly aggressive with pushing micro-transactions or painfully grind heavy, but I’m still fairly early on in my time with it. It’s also free to play, which is a pretty attractive price in my mind.

Dauntless is currently in open beta and available for download through their website playdauntless.com and will release exclusively to the Epic Store on May 21st.

The Adventures of Bepis Man

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As I was perusing the newest releases on the blighted wasteland that is the Steam store, I came across a free game called Burning Daylight. From its pictures, it looked like some sort of Inside or Limbo experience. An atmospheric puzzle-platformer if you will. As it turns out, Burning Daylight really wants to be like those other games, but doesn’t get anywhere close to their pedigree. But, the one thing it has going for itself, is that I’ve been introduced to my new favorite character and best friend for life, Bepis Man.

I want to take you on the journey of Bepis Man, and help you get to know him the way I did. Heads up, I am going to be spoiling the hell out of this game, so proceed with caution.

Let’s begin, shall we?

I was there when Bepis Man woke up. He seemed very confused and wasn’t doing his walking very good. But I guess the calming ominous lights in the background really motivated him to giddy up and go, although he didn’t control any better because of it.

I should mention, Bepis Man was totally nude. Just letting his deempus just kinda wave in the wind.

Bepis Man faced off against a treacherous door puzzle that involved pushing a button on a wall, and then opening a door. Bepis Man was very brave and did a great job.

While Bepis Man loved to show off his impressive member, the lack of clothes really seemed to grind his beans. He was shivering, and even though Bepis Man was my favorite pangus-warrior, I knew that he needed pants if he wanted to stay warm.

Unfortunately for Bepis Man, there just wasn’t a slick pair of JNCO jeans anywhere in sight, but there were these cool Air Jordans he could snatch off a dead man. Bepis Man being the nasty boy he is had no quibbles about slipping his meaty feet into those tasteful pumps.

Bepis Man, determined to warm his skin-pipe, found a hoodie. It kept his northern regions nice and toasty, but unfortunately his namesake was still exposed to the elements.

You know what Bepis Man values more than a bitchin’ pair of pants? Augmented Reality. Thanks to another fallen and equally nude person, Bepis Man was able to get his mitts on the latest in AR tech. The problem was, the batteries were all dried up. We needed to find him a USB-C cord, stat.

There’s a very strict pants law in the world Bepis Man is from, and he knew he was committing a capital offense. While he would’ve loved to get in the mix and do the electric slide with his pals, his bold new ways would just land him in pants-prison.

Bepis Man had reached his apartment, I think, and found a charging dock for his AR goggles. But more importantly, there was a sleek pair of track pants just chilling on the ground, waiting to cover his exposed dingle-dong.

Bepis Man has an app on his goggles that he relies on way too much. It’s called Pantslr, and it highlights the nearest set of pants. Now Bepis Man was able to conform to the closed-minded (clothes-minded) society he was reluctantly a part of.

Apparently, next to the naked bepis factory is the set from Blade Runner. Bepis Man was just as shocked as I was by this startling turn.

Bepis Man does not respect social norms, and will absolutely make it obvious that he is eavesdropping on your conversations. Bepis Man just doesn’t give a fuck.

Bepis Man finds a place in the world where his bold, bepis ways might be accepted, nay, even encouraged. Bepis Man is looking for love now that he found his pants. It’s just so hard finding someone to connect with.

Bepis Man likes what he sees.

There is a pretty harsh turn from dumpster love to religious cults. Bepis Man is confused and will be sneaking around this one. He just isn’t a big fan of religious institutions. Respects your beliefs though. He’s a good dude like that.

The quest for pants and romance kind of got out of hand, and now Bepis Man is using his goggles to jack into the mainframe or something. Bepis Man has become unto a God. All hail Bepis Man despite his distaste for religious institutions.

Bepis Man visits the set from Indiana Jones where they stored the Ark of The Covenant. He’s just a big fan of the original trilogy, and honestly, is kind of an apologist for the fourth one.

Turns out they were hiding more than just the Ark of The Covenant in this warehouse. They got trees up in here. Bepis Man has never seen such lush greenery, seeing as he was raised in Blade Runner-ville all his life. It really is beautiful, although Bepis Man is also discovering he’s got a wicked pollen allergy.

Bepis Man finds large swimming creatures and wonders how big their meat-sticks are. Is it the size of his? Much bigger? Is he the size of this creatures bepis? He had so many questions.

Bepis Man finds the room where the X-Men keep Cerebro. Is definitely curious to find more mutants like himself.

Gasp. Bepis Man has found where they’re incubating the ultimate bepis-fighters. His brethren are in those pods, begging to live a simple wing-wang based life. Bepis Man will help the only way he knows how: by touching every button he can find.

Turns out, the buttons just flush the pod boys down the drain. Bepis Man, you did a bad one there. Really boned it up on that one.

Bepis Man comes face to face with his creator. It’s another, older, Bepis Man who lives in a floating chair.

Wrinkly Bepis Man offers his Bepis son a choice: Become the Bepis-lord, or eat some apples.

Bepis Man loves apples though, and apparently eating an apple means you can’t then go sit in a chair. Which quite frankly is bullshit, because I’m sitting in a chair and eating and apple, and it totally is doable. Did you even try, Bepis Man?

Then I shit you not, the game just ends. That’s it. No bepis closure. No explanation about what the fuck I just endured. Nothing. Just a blank screen.

I can’t really complain though, the game was free and it only ate up a half-hour of my life. Which, considering I met my new best friend, Bepis Man while playing it, I’d say it was a net positive.

Burning Daylight is a game that wears its inspiration on it’s sleeve, and desperately tries to deliver a message about the dangers of gamification or something, and some weird jabs at vegans and religions, but I wouldn’t say it’s aggressively bad. It controls poorly and can’t hold a stable frame rate, but there are worse games you can spend a half-hour with. And besides, we got Bepis Man and his impressive penis journey out of it.

Thank you Bepis Man, and good luck, wherever you are.

The Borderlands Conundrum

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The announcement of Borderlands 3 and the details that were revealed about it left me feeling pretty indifferent about it. I’ve always had a weird relationship with Borderlands as a franchise and Borderlands 3 seems to continuing that tradition.

Before I get down on the franchise and the Borderlands 3 announcement, I figure I should mention that there are things that I really like about it. For one, the art style has always been appealing to me. The cel-shaded graphics gave the franchise a unique identity and personality that it lacked when Borderlands 1 was initially announced. It was a smart decision that enabled the series to age visually age more gracefully than other games of its time. Borderlands is and will continue to be a very impressive and memorable game based on visuals alone.

Along with the visuals, some of the mechanics of the series were impressive for their time. Borderlands made multiplayer a fairly painless process that made it easy for people to drop-in and drop-out without much of a hassle, which is something some games still struggle with today. The randomly generated, infinite guns thing is also cool in concept, but in my experience I rarely found any of the really cool or interesting ones that I’ve heard people talk about. The talking guns, or the guns that fire other guns never really dropped for me, which is a shame. Ideally I’d like for Borderlands 3 to not only add more interesting gun types, but also make it so I can see some of that stuff at lower levels.

But as with anything I write, there are aspects of Borderlands that I really don’t like. For instance, the writing always been a contentious issue for me – particularly the humor. It just always felt like your dad sent you a meme from 5 years ago that they just discovered. “Yeah dad, I guess that cat does want to ‘haz’ cheeseburger” doesn’t feel too different from, “Yeah Claptrap, that is a cool dab you just did.”

Perhaps maybe my least favorite aspect of the Borderlands game is the lack of customization. Borderlands 3 doesn’t seem to be changing this in any meaningful way from what they’ve shown thus far, but it just seems crazy to me that in a world where games like The Division 2 and Destiny exist, you can’t create your own character. Sure those games have pretty limited customization options, but you’re still making a character.

Instead, Borderlands 3 seems to be continuing the tradition of picking one of four characters and going from there. Which wouldn’t be so bad if they included a lot of customization for them, which in all fairness they could do. But based on their past outings, you’ll probably get a couple of color swaps, and one or two that give your character a beard or a hat or something.

It just feels like Borderlands 3 could benefit from having a robust character creation system. Sure some of their existing characters were neat, like Zer0 and such, but I think it’d be cooler if I could just make my own weird cyber ninja, or robot summoner instead of having to pick from four premade options.

But Borderlands 3 does seem to be fixing one of my least favorite parts about the series, which is the world design. I’ve always found the post-apocalyptic style of the world of Pandora to be incredibly dull. But that’s a personal preference of mine, I just never found the post-apocalypse to be that interesting, whether it be in Borderlands or Fallout. In Borderlands 3, you’ll be traveling to more diverse planets which will be a great change of pace and a much needed shot in the arm for the franchise.

There’s so little information about Borderlands 3 at this point that all of this is just speculation, but I’m just not confident that Gearbox will take too many chances and try to change up what’s worked for them in the past. Considering their last few games didn’t exactly set the world on fire, particularly Battleborn, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to name a few, I just think Gearbox is apt to play it tremendously safe. Then when you add in some of the scandals and allegations surrounding the company and its CEO Randy Pitchford, Gearbox really needs to change the discourse around themselves.

I don’t envy the position they’re in, and I really hope that Borderlands 3 is the game that they need it to. Hell, I want that game to be good so my friends and I can have something we can play together, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Who is Stadia For?

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Recently, Google went ahead and unveiled their new gaming initiative in the form of a streaming platform called Stadia. Stadia aims to deliver high quality, low latency gaming experiences to various smart devices including televisions and smartphones. It all sounds very impressive to say the least, but I still have many questions about the specifics of the platform, among them being, who is it for?

Don’t get me wrong, I think the technology behind the Stadia is fascinating and worth developing; especially if you’re a platform holder like Valve or Microsoft. For those companies, you have players who might want to play their games away from their devices, and an effective streaming solution could essentially make any platform a mobile platform. But with Google leaving more questions on the table than answers, it leaves me wondering what role Stadia is meant to play in the gaming industry.

The first and most obvious answer is that it’s for people who want to play games anywhere on any device. Stadia seems like a great opportunity for people with a passing interest in games to try them out in a simple and straightforward way. In that regard, I could definitely see Stadia being a great way to play games without a major investment. But considering Google didn’t divulge the pricing model for Stadia, we’re left to speculate and fill in the blanks ourselves.

The two obvious routes are either, buying games through a Google storefront and streaming them to your device, or paying a subscription fee to play from a library of games. Both options are still cheaper than buying a console or computer as well as a game. For someone with a casual interest in games, this could be very enticing, but that well can only be so deep. At some point Google has to convince the people who play games more regularly to get on board with Stadia.

The pitch of playing a game running at 4K and 60 frames per second without relying on hardware limitations sounds great, but if I already owned an Xbox One X or a PC capable of running 4K60, what’s the selling point for me? In that instance, I already own the hardware, I’m not reliant on my internet connection to provide me with a low latency and high quality experience, and if I bought a physical copy of a game, I own it outright. As long as I have electricity, I can still play my games in most cases.

Gamers at this point have already willing put on blinders to the fact that their digital purchases are more licensing agreements than an actual bill of sale, so the mass adoption of Stadia isn’t completely out of the question. But in this case, the player essentially is relinquishing all ownership claims to Google. It isn’t your hardware, it isn’t your software, and I’m willing to bet that whatever EULA that will be included with Stadia that no one will read, will expressly outline your lack of ownership. Which isn’t out of the norm when you look at video streaming services like Netflix or Hulu. There is absolutely a precedent for this business model.

But that isn’t what I think gamers will really be apprehensive about. What I believe will be the biggest obstacle is how Google plans to entice existing players on other platforms to introduce more potential points of failure into their gaming experiences. There are a ton of well worn arguments, that despite how many times they’re raised, continue to be valid. Google and their track record with abandoning projects that don’t hit big, quickly enough, along with the sorry state of internet bandwidth and cap limits in the United States, are among the biggest obstacles that stand in the way of user migration.

Those alone are some of the biggest obstacles that Google has to navigate through, but when you drill down even further, you have to consider that there are games that require the lowest input latency possible, like fighting games and shooters. The technology would have to be incredibly impressive to make those games work at any competitive level, professional or not. And even if Stadia could make latency free game streaming a reality, the user is still beholden to their internet provider and the reliability of the connection.

I don’t think I would be as skeptical of this entire initiative if it was Sony or Microsoft doing it, not because I trust them more than Google, but because it could be a supplemental service that I could use to play the games I already own. If I could pay for an extra tier of PlayStation Plus with game streaming included in it, that would be a nice bonus feature to have.

Google seems to be trying to position Stadia as the next biggest competitor in the gaming market, and I just don’t see that as a possibility, at least not when we know so little about it. The whole situation just feels a lot like the Xbox One reveal back in 2013. Microsoft made this big, all digital push in a direction that the industry was already heading in, and tried to prematurely force it into existence, resulting in a disastrous launch that they’re still paying for. But 6 years later, digital purchasing is so prominent that companies like GameStop are having trouble sustaining themselves.

I’m optimistic about the technology behind Stadia and what it means for the industry at large, but I’m just not sold on it at the moment. Maybe when Google reveals more details later this year I’ll change my mind, but at this juncture, it just feels like little more than a novelty. The whole industry seems to be heading down the road to an all streaming future, but I don’t know that Google is going to be the car we all ride in.

Animal Crossing is Still Incredible

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Every morning I pack my bag with a water bottle, maybe a lunch, a charger, and my Nintendo Switch. I usually have some free time at my office, and like having the option to play games while I’m there. However, lately I’ve been bringing another, older hunk of plastic with me that has two screens and doesn’t fold. Of course, I’m talking about the Nintendo 2DS that I bought on a deep discount.

You might be asking yourself, “Ari, why would you bring that hideous blue monstrosity anywhere in public with you?” Now, while I agree that the 2DS is a garish nightmare-brick, the reason it’s been accompanying me to work is because it has Animal Crossing: New Leaf on it.

There are two main reasons why this matte-blue doorstop of a portable console has been my platform of choice lately. As I mentioned before, Animal Crossing, but also because I never really owned a 3DS or portable console before. I grew up with a Gameboy and stuff, but I missed out on almost two decades of mobile gaming hardware since then for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.

The last time I played an Animal Crossing game was the one on the original DS. A DS that an ex-girlfriend loaned me until our relationship collapsed under its own weight. So I never really got much time in the DS ecosystem. But that game left an incredible impression on me that didn’t make its impact known until I played New Leaf.

I have a problem with incremental games in general. For instance, I’ve been playing Wiz Khalifa’s Weed Farm on my phone for almost two years now because it’s a mindless checklist for me to engage with and clear daily, and also because I like seeing the numbers get bigger. Animal Crossing now occupies that space for me, and the best part is that it isn’t hitting me up to spend twenty dollars on “weed bucks” or whatever.

It’s a mindless, pleasant chore list, that’s so peaceful and chill. Maybe this penguin wants to trade me a dartboard for some pants, or maybe some shifty art dealer is trying to peddle some bullshit in my town. Whatever it is, it’s relaxing and non confrontational in a way that I am super into these days.I just boot this hunk of azure plastic up and get to go fishing with some cool animal friends, buy stuff from some awesome raccoons, or help the world’s worst museum curator in the world. I would way rather get my incremental, idle game fix from Animal Crossing: New Leaf than I would from anything I can get on my phone, including Animal Crossing Pocket Camp.

What I think I appreciate the most about Animal Crossing: New Leaf, is that it’s deceptively in-depth. You can look at promotional materials and just assume it’s a slight experience, offering nothing of substance. And if you asked me to describe what I do daily in the game, it can sound pretty boring. But there’s a ton of secret, under explained, or purposefully obfuscated mechanics hiding under the surface of the game.

The game never told me that I had to buy more stuff from the shops for them to expand and grow, but that sure as hell makes sense. I didn’t know that you could wish upon a shooting star and get magic furniture delivered to you the next day, but here we are. It’s just a bunch of little hidden systems like those, that add so much depth and variety to this game.

Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things about Animal Crossing that drive me up a wall, like inventory management, and how much people like to talk to me about scanning Amiibo figures in for stuff. That and the fact that even though six creatures live in the town, and I’m one of them, and the only human, and also the mayor, every shop owner treats me like it’s the first time I’ve been there. I’m the mayor, remember my very unique and non-animalian face for once in your lives. But those are nitpicky concerns at best.

All of this was spurred on by the announcement of a new Animal Crossing game coming to the Switch this year. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that game and explore whatever weirdness Nintendo injects into it. The saddest part about it is, whenever it does finally release, all of my citizens in Animal Crossing: New Leaf will die from loneliness because I’m never going to pick up that ugly-ass Nintendo 2DS again.

Early Impressions: Eastshade

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When it comes to talking about Eastshade, I’m conflicted about how to portray it. Eastshade is an ambitious game that has a lot of interesting ideas that I’d like to see fleshed out, but all the ambition in the world doesn’t cover up its glaring flaws.

You are a nameless, faceless character who is honoring the last wishes of your dying mother. In the introduction of the game, you recall a memory of her, imploring you to travel to this wonderful land and experience its beauty. See, in Eastshade, your character is a painter, and what your mother has given you is essentially a checklist of things to paint. But to say that all you do in Eastshade is go to things and paint them would be a misrepresentation of the experience as a whole.

Eastshade is a first person puzzle and exploration game, that has you exploring a whimsical island and discovering the many secrets it hides. In lieu of combat or platforming, you only interact with the world in a handful of ways. You’re mostly talking to the citizens of the world, collecting resources, painting pictures, and using the time of day to solve puzzles and uncover mysteries. On the surface that all sounded like an enticing offer to me, but after only a few hours, my motivation to continue has started to wain.

Right off the bat I noticed that Eastshade doesn’t run well at all. No matter what combination of settings I turned off or on, the game wasn’t able to keep a stable frame rate and would often hitch up. In addition to that, it’s also an incredibly buggy game in general. From NPCs getting caught in loops, to your character bouncing off of the geometry of the world if you step on the wrong piece of it, Eastshade has an overwhelming level of jank. Even things like quitting the game are more complicated than they need to be. Seriously, every single time I quit the game it freezes up, and I have to force quit it from the task manager.

On top of poor performance, the whole game feels disjointed and directionless and often boils down to you doing endless fetch quests for different citizens to unlock more of the map. Even the “painting” part of the game is just you hitting a button to capture what’s on screen at the moment, then that appears on a small canvas next to you. It’s really a glorified screenshot button.

Early on in the game you’ll come across a bridge that nobody is guarding, but requires you to pay a toll of 60 fantasy dollars. You cannot get over it unless you pay, and you can’t go around it because every body of water in Eastshade might as well be a wall. So now you’re trying to figure out how to get 60 fantasy dollars. Luckily there’s a man who will buy feathers off of you for one fantasy buck each. That means you need to scrounge around in the fields looking for feathers, or complete some other fetch quest for someone else in order to pay this ridiculous bridge fee.

But it doesn’t end there, cause once you do that you meet a man who will build you a boat if you bring him some materials. Then you meet a person who needs sticks to build a fence, and person who needs inky mushrooms to make you map. It all feels so antithetical to the initial pitch of, “uncover the mysteries of the island.” I felt like an errand boy more than a mystery solver or a painter.

One of the moments that left me particularly frustrated and confused was when I finally made it to the entrance of a city that everyone was telling me I had to visit, only to be turned away at the gate by a guard. The reason for my denial; I didn’t have any reference letters. That’s right, I needed reference letters that would vouch for the quality of my character before I would be allowed in. The guard even said that the city loved new visitors, but they needed to take extra precautions to make sure that all of them were good people. It was at that moment I had the realization that everything in Eastshade is gated off by some collect-a-thon or MMO side-quest bullshit.

It’s all such a shame considering that Eastshade has some really neat ideas that I wish were executed better. The world is beautiful and has some really unique and interesting locations to discover. The concept of exploring a whimsical world as a painter and dealing with problems through dialogue rather than combat was also super intriguing to me, but this all just feels half-baked. There is a lot of promise in the early hours of Eastshade, and I’m going to try to get a little further in it before I make any definitive statement on it as a complete product, but as it stands right now, Eastshade is a game that pushes me further and further away, every time I play it.

Eastshade is currently available on Steam for $24.99.

Early Impressions: Unruly Heroes

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From the moment I started playing Unruly Heroes, I was immediately struck by how awkward and unresponsive it felt. My initial reaction was to assume that I needed to spend more time with it to really get a handle on things, hoping it would eventually click with me. Since it was first revealed, I was drawn in by the beautiful art and animation the trailers had boasted, but after spending some time with it I grew more and more frustrated with the game.

Let’s back up though. Unruly Heroes is a side-scrolling action and puzzle platformer created by Magic Design Studios, which as far as I can tell is their first game. You’ll be switching between one of four characters on the fly in order to solve puzzles and maneuver around levels. Each character has different attack patterns, abilities, and either have a double jump or can float in the air. This all is depicted in a beautiful art style reminiscent of the most recent Rayman games, but ultimately lacks the personality or charm that they had.

The first few levels I played were bland and uninteresting, opting for a snowy field and snowy cave theme which didn’t make for a great first impression. But despite the uninspired level design, the game looked phenomenal and was enough to keep me pushing through to see what else there was. Unfortunately, this is where things really broke down for me.

Playing Unruly Heroes isn’t very much fun. The combat is unsatisfying and at times unresponsive. You have a basic attack that strings into a three or four hit combo, a long range attack, a grab and an ultimate move. On the surface it looks like you have a variety of options for dispatching your enemies, but really you’ll only end up using basic attacks. The problem is that nothing else, save for your ultimate, ever feels fast or strong enough to bother using.

On top of the lack of encouragement to diversify your attacks, some combos end in a flourish that you’re locked into and can’t cancel out of. One character strikes with his staff a few times before expanding into a large ball and smashing down to complete the combo. The problem is that they’re completely vulnerable to counterattacks in that time, and enemies recover quick enough to knock you out of it.

That wouldn’t be such an issue if you had some effective defensive options, but you’re really left wide open most of the time, save for an unresponsive dodge roll that you can’t use mid-combo. If all of that wasn’t disheartening enough, all of your characters are insanely fragile and will die the first chance they get. On the flip side, your enemies are way more durable than you and can take one hell of a beating, while simultaneously wielding the ability to kill you in a few strikes.

Even outside of combat Unruly Heroes is frustrating and unforgiving, but not because of a well tuned difficulty, rather due to sluggish and unresponsive controls. Switching characters, dodging, attacking and jumping all feel unwieldy and floaty. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve fallen into spike traps, or mistimed jumps and fell to my death thanks to the hit-or-miss controls. Nothing about playing Unruly Heroes ever feels good.

I had mild expectations going into Unruly Heroes, but within the first few minutes of playing it I was already let down. The control and combat issues are exacerbated when combined with the bland level design and lightweight puzzles. I’m still early in my time with the game so maybe it will click for me as I make some more progress, but at this moment I barely have any motivation to return to it to see it through.

This Early Impression is based off of the Nintendo Switch version of Unruly Heroes.

The 2019 Reset

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As you can probably tell, things look a little different around here. Some stuff got shifted around, the artwork is looking a little different and our YouTube channel is a little… barren. But that’s all part of the plan. See, we’re working on revamping The Bonus World a little, and trying to make it more diverse and sustainable.

Last year we tried streaming a lot of stuff to mixed results, and while it was a lot of fun, it just wasn’t something we could all reliably do. So we stopped doing any video work for a while, and though it sure made my workload a lot lighter, it did leave a large gap in our website.

So we’re trying some new things out here. Or rather, we’re trying to find a method that works for us. We’ve got a new video coming out this Friday at 3:00pm ET, which is exciting, and the written stuff on the site is still going at it’s normal pace.

There are a lot of things I’d like to do in 2019 in regards to The Bonus World, and bringing back video is a big one. We’d also like to start streaming at some point in the future, but it’s unclear as to when that’ll happen. But till then, the blog will continue to update weekly, articles will occasionally pop up, and video features are going to make a return.

If you want to watch any of our content from last year, it can still be accessed on the site in the Archived Shows portion of the drop down video menu. Lastly, the site is going to fluctuate a bit as I finalize the design and layout of things, so if menus move around, or the art changes again, it’s probably just me fiddling around on the back end because I can’t ever just leave things alone.

Thanks for continuing to hang with us, and we hope that we can make some big strides in 2019. Fingers crossed.

Games to Keep an Eye on in 2019

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With 2018 on the out, it wouldn’t hurt to take a quick look at what confirmed 2019 releases I’m interested in, and think you might be as well. Most of these are games I’m genuinely looking forward to, and some are pure curiosities.

The first part of this list is going to highlight games that I am actually excited to play. I’m not saying they’ll all be winners, but these ones are things that have really captured my interest.

The Last Campfire

Announced at The Game Awards of 2018, The Last Campfire is being produced by Hello Games, the folks behind No Man’s Sky. While my feeling on their previous release is mixed at best, I am interested to see what Hello Games does with a smaller, more focused project. Considering how much I enjoy the aesthetic of No Man’s Sky, it’s no surprise that The Last Campfire has piqued my curiosity.

Control

I’m not entirely sure what Control is or what it’s going for, but it gives me this weird Psi-Ops vibe and I’m okay with that. The game certainly has a style and looks like it’s going to do some pretty abstract stuff aesthetically.

Afterparty

Maybe you remember Oxenfree, maybe you don’t, but the folks at Night School are making another intensely charming game, yet this time it has an even more unbelievable premise: You have to beat the devil in a drinking contest to come back to life. Regardless of whether you think this game would be for you, you have to admit that it has a pretty amazing premise.

Sable

I have no idea what is going on in Sable, but I know that I love everything about the way it looks already. It’s pitched as a “coming-of-age tale of discovery through exploration across a strikingly rendered open world desert.” and I think that sounds pretty exciting. Plus, just look at it.

Cloudpunk

You know what would make 2019 an infinitely better year? More cyberpunk themed games. Cloudpunk certainly nails the aesthetic, but I’m genuinely curious if it delivers on more than the cyberpunk standard tropes that talk about how evil the corporations are. Like, yeah, we know they’re evil, but tell me about your cool robot arms. Hopefully Cloudpunk delivers a fresh take on this well-worn territory.

Tunic

Every time I see Tunic, I’m reminded of just how impressive it looks. I really like the style it’s going for, but the game-play looks like it’ll hold up it’s end of the bargain. But first impressions can be deceiving. We’ll find out soon, I suppose.

My Friend Pedro

Just look at this darn game. It’s absolutely bananas and I don’t actually believe that it’s going to be anything more than a “cool moment” generator, but just look at some of the stuff you can do. I don’t think anything else has been said about the game, but I’m super interested in what’s been shown off so far.

Ooblets

Ooblets looks like the beautiful lovechild between Harvest Moon, Pokemon and Animal Crossing. It’s such a delight to look at and it just seems like it’s gonna make you feel good to play. I’m always up for a game that charms me so much that my cheeks hurt from all the smiling.

Body of Evidence

I’ll be the first to admit that Body of Evidence doesn’t necessarily look like a game that’s gonna take the world by storm, but I just really like the pitch that it puts forward. Cleaning up the evidence from a crime scene? Count me in. I already have a weird fascination with these simulation games, so this just seems like a fun spin on one of those.

Untitled Goose Game

Yeah, you know this game had to be on the list. I aspire to be a horrible goose prankster everyday of my life, and soon there’s going to be a game that allows me to do that? Yeah Untitled Goose Game, I’m picking up what you’re putting down. And I sure hope they never change the name of the game.

Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing is so good. It’s such a wonderful and pleasant game that I wish had a better mobile version than it got. While in my mind I’ve envisioned a fully realized version of Animal Crossing existing on my iPhone, having on the Switch is the next best thing. Here’s to hoping it lives up to expectations.

The Zone of Curiosities

Whereas everything you’ve seen up till now are games that I’m actually pretty excited for, the next few are games that I’m still not entirely sure how to feel about.

Anthem

The first game I’d like to highlight in The Zone of Curiosities is Anthem. I was not a very big fan of Destiny, and I know this is a different thing, but that’s the comparison that EA has opened themselves up to with Anthem. I would love for Anthem to be it’s own unique thing and really impress me, but I’m just so weary of multiplayer focused games these days.

Crackdown 3

I want Crackdown 3 to be good, I’m just afraid that the Crackdown formula doesn’t work in modern games anymore. Even when Crackdown came out on the Xbox 360 it felt a little archaic. I would love to see a modern take on the franchise, but somehow Crackdown 3 doesn’t seem like it’s doing much to innovate. But I guess I don’t really know anything about it.

Shenmue III

Even if you aren’t a fan of the Shenmue games, you have to be curious right? I have no real issues with the Shenmue games, but I haven’t played them in years so who knows how I’d feel today. But damn, I am so curious to see how this thing pans out.

In the Valley of Gods

I loved Firewatch and that alone is reason for me to be excited for the next game from Campo Santo, but I just feel like I know literally nothing about this game. It sure looks like it’s got the Firewatch vibe nailed down, but I want to know more.

Psychonauts 2

Psychonauts is one of my favorite games, and for years I’ve wanted a sequel. It’s actually happening and I’m eager to take a look at what the sequel to a game released in 2005 actually looks like. Psychonauts was a good platformer that won so many people over because of it’s charm, but I wonder if they can replicate that in a a sequel over a decade later.

Review: Red Dead Redemption 2

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Over the course of my time with Red Dead Redemption 2, I found myself waffling between moments of awe and frustration fairly consistently. It’s a game that feels as if it suffered an identity crisis midway through development, leaving it disjointed in many areas. Yet despite this, Red Dead Redemption 2 still managed to be one of my favorite experiences of the year.

Seeing the events that set the stage for 2010’s Red Dead Redemption was and still is an enticing proposition. That’s one of the most impressive things to me about Red Dead Redemption 2, how even though I had a pretty strong idea of how things were going to shake out, it still managed to surprise me and keep me engaged.

Which is good considering that the actual playing of Red Dead Redemption 2 can feel like a chore at times, leaving you to contend with some overly cumbersome systems. For instance, instead of just having your weapons with you at all times, you only carry your pistols by default and anything else will have to selected as you’re getting off of your horse. This led to me forgetting my good guns all the time, or even weirder, the game just arbitrarily deciding which guns my character decided to roll out with.

And that’s kind of the most frustrating thing about Red Dead Redemption 2, it doesn’t tell you a lot of things. Simple stuff, like how selling versus donating items works, or why some of your actions get you in trouble with the law as opposed to others. A lot of the game is nebulous and requires you to learn about and discover the inner workings of these systems on your own, but sometimes I just wanted some clarity.

Meanwhile, other systems just tend to be a hassle and seem overly complex in an effort to maintain whatever the Red Dead version of realism is. For example, the “cores” system is a needless complication to the concept of health and stamina bars, making the player have to worry about recharge rates as well as the overall status of the meter. The idea is that eating food recharges your cores which effects how fast your meters recharge, which inherently isn’t a bad system, but the cumbersome inventory management you have to engage with to eat the food makes it more of a chore than it needs to be.

But all of that is overshadowed by the incredible world that Rockstar has built for you to explore. Red Dead Redemption 2 presents a vast, detailed and diverse landscape for you to spend time in, whether it’s doing side missions, going hunting or finding one of the seemingly endless weird secrets that are tucked away. On top of that it’s also incredible to look at. The game is drop dead gorgeous, which explains why my launch PS4 sounds like an airplane in mid flight the entire time I’m playing. The music is mostly subtle and understated, chiming in at just the right moments in a long ride or adding to the tension as you walk into an abandoned home.

Even more impressive might be the mission design. While most of the main missions boil down to you riding your horse somewhere, shooting stuff, and then riding back, but it’s the side stuff and random encounters that really make things special. Every side mission, random encounter, home invasion, and stagecoach robbery were unique and offered something different. Even things that I expected to be more filler-type content like collecting debts and hunting animals, all had some unique angle and backstory to them. Hell, even when one of your fellow gang members asks to go fishing with you, it still manages to be interesting and rewarding.

And that’s the big shadow that Red Dead Redemption 2 casts, and the thing that makes me look past every grievance I have with it. The game is impressive and consistently left me in awe no matter what corner of its world I was poking in. I know that feeling is fleeting and won’t be the same when I revisit it in the future, but for the entirety of all of my play sessions I was enthralled and impressed.

But there’s a big caveat to all of this, and that’s if you can handle the pace of the game. You have to get used to the fact that you can’t hurry the game along and rush through it. Everything is slower and more deliberate, and you better believe you’re gonna watch that drawer opening animation for the thousandth time.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that goes against the grain of modern video games in a way that might drive you insane. I’ve struggled with control issues, bad tutorialization, and slow paced gameplay, and I understand the many impulses to put the game down and walk away. Yet despite all of that, Red Dead Redemption 2 presented me with a great story with memorable characters in a living world that I am happy I got to experience and will happily do again whenever a PC version gets released.