YouTube Channel: Defeating Laurence The First Vicar

The Old Hunters is one of the best DLCs I have ever played, but by god was Laurance, The First Vicar hard. You enter the fight thinking "Oh This guy is nothing but a reskin of the Cleric Beast. This should be a piece of cake." I could not have been more wrong. His move set is completely unpredictable and the fact that all of his attacks are augmented with fire damage made this fight near impossible. Part of that might have been because I was fighting him on New Game +2, but I have a sneaking suspicion that he's going to be just as difficult to fight on a new character as well. I died at least fifty times fight this guy and half of those fights I didn't even make it to his second phase. When I finally beat him I felt a sense of joy I hadn't felt in quite a while. Can't wait to fight him again with a new character.

YouTube Channel: Waste of Skin Kills Scourge Beast With Bare Hands

Waste of Skin is one of the starting origins stories in Bloodborne that starts you off at a really low level and makes the early game much harder than usual. There is also a Scourge Beast at the beginning of the game that most players will most certainly die too. So it's a pretty impressive feat that a I was able to beat the Scourge Beast with my bare hands with a Waste of Skin Character.

YouTube Channel: Owning Vicar Amelia In Co Op

This is me with my Arcane No Guns Character uttering owning Vicar Amelia witht help of some other hunters I called into my world with the Beckoning Bell. Been really diving in to co op battles lately especially since the DLC came out.

YouTube Channel: Bloodborne Let's Play Part 14: The Hunt's End

The night of the hunt is nearing its end. Old Lady Ashwich leaves the Nightmare of Mensis the travel into the highest stratum of the Healing Church to discover the truth of the Choir, the leaders of the Healing Church. Then she returns to the nightmare to end the cries of the nightmare newborn and end the hunt. But when offered mercy by Gehrman The First Hunter she refuses and the truth of the hunt comes into terrifying view.

YouTube Channel: Bloodborne Let's Play Part 13: Diving into the Darkest Depths of The Nightmare Realm

Old Lady Ashwich returns to the nightmare realm to brave the Nightmare of Mensis, the most terrifying place in all of the Nightmare Realm. Will she have what it takes to survive and end the hunt or will she be forever lost in the dark realm of the endless madness.

YouTube Channel: Bloodborne Let's Play Part 12: I Hate The Bloody Crow of Cainhurst

Old Lady Ashwich finds herself back in the Nightmare Lecture and confronts the mysterious man that lead her into the grasp of Amygala earlier. Then she returns to the Cathedral Ward to asset Eileen the Crow and proceeds to die over, and over, and over, and over again.

Star Wars Battlefront Review: Torn Between The Light and Dark Side of the Force.

Everything wrong with Star Wars Battlefront can be summed up by what publisher's logo is right under the title.

Developer: EA DICE
Publishers: Electronic Arts
Versions: PS4(reviewed), Xbox One, and PC
Price: $59.99 plus $49.99 Season Pass
Release Date: November 17th, 2015

Star Wars is an extremely important part of my life. My parents were huge Star Wars fans and did everything in their power to make sure that me and my sister were as well. I've watched the original films and the special editions more times that I can count, my family and I were at the midnight launch of all three prequel films, me and my sister got tickets for the new Star Wars film the second they became available, and everyone in my family was completely obsessed about the Star Wars expanded universe. In spite of being a huge Star Wars fan I never played any of the original Star Wars Battlefront games. They were just never my kind of games. I was more into the Star Wars RPGs and Podracer games than anything else. So I'm going into uncharted territory with this new game. I want to tell you that Star Wars Battlefront is a fantastic game, but sadly, while it is indeed a very good game, it is denied true greatness by the immense greed of its publisher Electronic Arts.

Star Wars Battlefront is the best looking game on consoles out right now!

Let's start with the good. Aesthetically, Star Wars Battlefront is a prefect representation of the original Star Wars trilogy. You can tell just by looking at this game that the people at DICE absolutely love Star Wars. The three playable hero characters that you can play as in certain modes such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are also lovingly designed, though they suffer a bit by not being voiced by their original actors. There are also a deserve set of modes that range from traditional 20 player deathmatches to massive 40 player events that have one team doing incredible feats such as taking out massive AT-AT walkers while the other team tries to stop them. The aerial dog fights in X-Wings and Tie Fighters are also a wonder to behold and a joy to play. While the game is focused on online play more than anything, there are a few offline modes that are a blast to play as well.

Dogfights are a lot of fun though there aren't any space battles sadly.

On the technical side of things Star Wars Battlefront is my new benchmark for First Person Shooter games on consoles. The game ran at a smooth 60fps with no frame drops during any of my sessions and still manages to look absolutely gorgeous. Star Wars Battlefront is proof that 60fps is not some insane impossibility that requires massive amounts of work. Matchmaking for online matches is also the fastest and smoothest I have every seen in any multiplayer shooter to date. This is especially amazing because I played off of my crappy DSL server in the middle of nowhere and the game still ran like an absolute dream at least when no one else in my home was doing anything else on the internet. I'm also insanely grateful that in an age where multiplayer shooters liter themselves with intrusive microtranactions, which is something that Electronic Art's itself is guilty of in the past, I'm glad to say that they are nowhere to be found in this game.

Star Wars Battlefront offers lots of player customization without resorting to any kind of microtransactions.

However, despite all of the positive things I have said about Star Wars Battlefront and the massive amounts of fun I have been having with it, there is one big elephant in the room that just sours the whole experience. One of the major issues that I have with the game is while all the content that is here is of very high quality there just isn't all that much of it right now. There all only 16 maps and you will undoubtedly see all of them multiple times after playing all of the different modes. There are also on six hero character to play in the current build of the game and it feels like a very small number considering all of the amazing characters in the Star Wars universe. Now if Electronic Arts was planning to update the game periodicly with free content like Nintendo's multiplayer shooter Spatoon I wouldn't have much of an issue with this lack of base game content. But, I have a sneaking suspicion that Electronic Arts made sure that the base game was deliberately lacking in content so they could justify the $50 season pass that grants access to the game's 4 planned expansions. This is an extremely greedy and underhanded tactic, but because it's Electronic Arts, a company with a reputation with buying popular game franchises and then proceeding to run them into the ground with bad business practices and short sighted greed, this isn't particularly surprising.

The amount is DLC that EA has planned for this game is just plain greedy.

I wanted to sing the praises of this game. It isn't a Battlefield clone like many feared it would be. It's its own thing and it plays like an absolute dream, but the lack of content and the obvious ploy to milk consumers for more money is just sleazy. If you really want to get Star Wars Battlefront I can't say if not worth your time because it most certainly is, but be ready to hand over a fair bit of money if you want to stick with this game in the long term. The greed that Electronic Arts has displayed here with Battlefront makes me fear for the other Star Wars games they have in production. This is the same company that ruined the ending of Mass Effect 3 and forever doomed almost all conversations about that game to be about it's awful original ending. I'd recommend waiting for a game of the year release containing all of the planned DLC. I don't want to support the practice of season passes even if it's for games that I like.

YouTube Channel: Defeating Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen

This is me making it to the bottom of the Chalice Dungeons and defeating the final boss you need to be to get the Platinum Trophy. Just wanted to share my accomplishment we all you guys.

YouTube Channel: Rare Piece of Dialogue from The Plain Doll

I know that many others have found this dialogue a long time ago, but this is the first time that I have heard it and I wanted to share it with you guys. Hope you enjoy!

Open World Games: Bethesda vs Ubisoft

With the latest Assassin's Creed game come and gone and with Fallout 4 just on the horizon I wanted to talk about the ways that Ubisoft and Bethesda design their open world games. Because having been replaying Skyrim and Assassin's Creed 2 lately I couldn't help but think how differently these two games were from each other and why I could play one for hours on end and had to take lots of breaks in between play sessions for the other one. Neither of these games are bad, but I do think that one makes use of its wide open world much better than the other one.

All of Assassin's Creed's protagonists. I think Ubisoft needs to be more creative with their character designs.

Let's start by talking about the Assassin Creed games. The original Assassin's Creed at it heart was a stealth game about collecting information on targets in an open world environment before going to actually kill said target in interesting little mission. Assassin's Creed 1 has a lot of interesting ideas that were sadly undermined by a lot of repetitive objectives that you do over and over again with very little change over the course of the game. It wasn't until Assassin's Creed 2 that it began to iron out all of the major issues. The repetitive mission structure was replaced with linear story missions that did a great job of mixing up what the player was doing in each mission. There were still repetitive missions that served little purpose, but they were now side objectives that you didn't need to complete to finish the game and some of them like the Glyph Puzzles and the Assassin Tombs were great fun. Ubisoft finally perfected it's open world formula with Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood which gave the side objectives a greater purpose by liberating more of the map for you to explore.

The map of Ubisoft's Far Cry 4. It may look big, but most of the stuff you can do in this game is mostly indistinct.

However, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood marked the end of Ubisoft's innovations in their open world formula and the beginning of their annualization of the Assassin's Creed franchise. From Assassin's Creed Revelations onward Ubisoft has basically made the same base game with very little distinguishing each individual over the last few years. If that weren't bad enough the Ubisoft Open World Formula, as it has come to be known, has bleed over into their other franchises as well. From Far Cry to Watch Dogs all of Ubisoft's games now follow the same basic formula. That formula being; got to the top of a high vantage point to reveal more of the map, do every little thing that the map reveals, and then the first two things about twenty times over. There are still story mission that help break up the repetition, but even those are blurring into each other now with set pieces being copied from from each of their separate franchises. There is also the fact that everything in the game is a check list that you have to complete like finding every weapon or killing one of every animal the game world. It is made even more infuriating by the fact that some of the check list items can only be obtained by preordering the damn games from several different outlets to clear all the check boxes. As of this writing the most recent entry into the Assassin's Creed series, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate has had mediocre review scores and lower sales than previous years. People are getting tired of an Assassin's Creed game every year and are hungering for something new.

Concept art of Skyrim which emphasizes the size and scope of the world. 

In vast contrast with Ubisoft's over-saturation of it's open world game series, Bethesda spends up to five years making just one entry into it's major open world franchises. The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series alternate between each other and offer fresh new experiences every time a new one is released. The way Bethesda designs it's open world games is also very differently than Ubisoft. Where Ubisoft's open world games focus on either having you run through a linear story with a bunch of repetitive side objectives to fill out check boxes,  Bethesda drops you into a huge open world and asks you to make your own stories. While Bethesda's games do have a main quest that you can follow the real joy comes from simply exploring to your hearts content. There are no vantage points you have to climb to reveal more of the map, no check lists for you to complete, and no day one DLC you have to worry about buying. That is why I enjoy playing Skyrim and Fallout 3 much more than playing Assassin's Creed 3 or Far Cry 3. Because I feel that I am exploring a world at my own pace and that I can forge my own path.

Fallout 3's Capitol Wasteland is a massive place that you can explore to your heart's content.

I know for a fact that Fallout 4 will be great, but that doesn't mean I think it's going to be perfect. I have problems with Bethesda games just like I have problems with Ubisoft games. Bethesda games tend to have lots of technical issues and pretty underwhelming graphics. But the point I'm trying to make is that Bethesda does a much better job at making open world games and that they understand the value of player freedom even if it means undermining other elements of their games. Ubisoft on the other hand has an issue of copy and pasting the same basic formula over all of their games and they really need to give their Assassin's Creed series a break so they can come back with fresh ideas. I hope that Ubisoft's new Far Cry game Far Cry Primal breaks away from a lot of the issues that have been plaguing their games lately. I want to enjoy a Ubisoft open world game again and not just sigh every time I have to climb up a radio tower to reveal more of the map form an millionth time.

Secondhand Opinions: Dropsy and Undertale

This has been a fantastic year for games and not only for big budget games. We also have had a lot of interesting independent games that use the aesthetics and mechanics of older games to craft fresh new experiences that take advantage of video games unique interactive nature to tell incredible stories. Games that subvert game predilection for violence and encourage you to solve your problems peacefully. Two of those games are the point and click adventure Dropsy and the role playing game Undertale.

The sole goal of Dropsy is to get a hug from every character in the game.

Dropsy is a point and click adventure game in which you play as a deformed clown named Dropsy who just wants to make people happy. The goal of the game is solve the problems of everyone you find in the world and get a hug from them all. This is easier said then done because the entire hates him because they think he is responsible for burning down the local circus and killing his own mother. Dropsy also doesn't have any actual worded dialogue not even text. All characters talk using speech bubbles with images and you have to guess what they are saying and how you can use what you know to help them. This isn't as complicated as it seems though it can lead to some difficult puzzles. Overall, Dropsy is a game that subverts your expectations of scary looking clowns and encourages players to do everything they can to be a good person.

Undertale is hands down one of the best games of the year.

Undertale is a role playing game that takes heavy inspiration from the Mother series of RPGs, which are called Earthbound outside of Japan. Undetale puts you in the role of a little kid that has fallen into a world of monsters underground and encourages you to talk to monsters and resolve battles peacefully. The story is absolutely amazing with extremely well written characters, a mind blowing focus on replayability, and a wonderful sense of humor that helps balance the deep themes of empathy, love, and tolerance. Be warned that even though this is a game that anyone of any age can play there is some truly terrifying and unsettling moments in the game especially towards the end. I don't want to spoil anything though and I highly recommend playing Undetale. It is one of those games that we only get once in a blue moon.