YouTube Channel: Let's Play Transistor Part 4: Across The Canals

After chilling in The Backdoor for a while Red continues her quest to hunt down the remaining members of The Camerata, who are based somewhere in the Highrise District. To reach Highrise Red must cross The Canals District where she finds the one packed streets swarming with the Process. The Process doesn't just want Red, it wants all of Cloudbank.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play The Witness Part 1: It's Just Line Puzzles Right?

My journey into the mysterious world of The Witness begins. How long until I start feeling stupid about not being able to solve the puzzles? You'll have to watch to find out.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Transistor Part 3: Hello Again Sybil

Red returns to the scene of the crime and remembers what caused her current predicament. She then encounters a member of The Camerata that has been processed and manages to put her out of her misery. She then begins to travel across the city to confront the leader of The Camerata.  But not before taking a trip to the beach.

Secondhand Opinions: Darkest Dungeon

Dive into the darkest depths of madness in Red Hook Studios' Darkest Dungeon.

If playing Bloodborne and its expansion The Old Hunters last year taught me anything it's that a part of me really likes brutal, challenging games when they are done well. It also made me realize how much I love Gothic and Lovecraftian horror. I'm also a huge fan of the base management elements of turn based tactics game like XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The goal of Darkest Dungeon, the debut title of Red Hook Studios, was to take the aesthetic elements of Gothic horror, the psychological madness of Lovecraftian horror, and the turn based combat and base management of games like XCOM and mix them all together into a wonderful mash of Gothic horror, role playing, base management delight. The game main selling point besides it general difficulty is the unique Affliction System that would saddle playable hero characters with negative psychological quirks if they get to stress while adventuring and facing off against enemies.  For example, a hero might adopt a fear of spiders after getting damaged by spider enemies one to many times. On paper this sounds like a really good game and preliminary buzz from media covering the game confirmed that it was a good game, but things seemed to get a bit rocky during the development of the game.

If a Hero's Stress Meter is filled their Resolve is tested and if they fail they will be inflicted with a Negative Quirk that heavily affects their performance when dungeon crawling.

Darkest Dungeon had been in Early Access on Steam for almost a year and only recently left it to be sold as a finished product. While for the most part, the development of Darkest Dungeon while it was in Early Access has been praised as the proper way to use the platform, it was still a bit turbulent. Apparently several fans of the game accused the game of being far too easy and wanted it to be harder. So Red Hook Studios added several new mechanics to make the game more challenging. They added corpses that got in the way of attacks and needed to be removed from the field to properly use certain abilities, heart attacks that could instantly kill your heroes if their stress meter gets too high, and greatly increases the defense and critical hit rate of enemies. Several players felt that these changes were far too extreme and alienated new players while others felt that the changes were exactly what the game need. Red Hook Studios did it best to try and please everyone by making some of the more extreme mechanics optional, but still it shook the faith many people had in the game. Did it survive its time in Early Access or did it come out an overly difficult mess.

Your Estate and The Hamlet built around it is your base of operations. Where you hire new heroes, buy equipment, and treat stress and afflictions.

Thankfully, Darkest Dungeon was able to endure the nagging of people desperately wanting them to make the game they way they want it and find a nice balance suits both the players and the developers. The game is still tough as nails, but newcomers at the very least have shot of getting sucked into the game and striving to get better to see more of it. The game has gone on to get critical acclaim from most major gaming news outlets such as IGN and Game Informer as well as independent game journalists like Jim Sterling. The game is set have some new content added post launch like a new hero class known as The Merchant. I plan to pick up this game as soon as I have some disposable income available. Until then I must be contented with Twitch Streams and Let's Plays. Darkest Dungeon is currently available for PC and OS X and will be coming to PS4 later this year.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Transistor Part 2: Sea Food Flatbread

Instead of skipping town Red decides to head back to the scene of the crime in Cloudbank's Goldwalk District. She arrives to find it deserted and the Process already processing the area. On the bright side of things, Red manages to order a Sea Monster Flatbread to eat when see gets home. If she gets home.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Transistor Part 1: Hello World

A singer without a voice. A man stuck inside a strange weapon. Strange robots turning the world around them into monocrome nothingness and killing everyone that gets in their way. Who is this woman?  Why is she kneeling over the corpse of this man? Who did her hair it's absolutely fabulous. Well you're just going to have to watch to find out.

Secondhand Opinions: Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Rise of the Tomb Raider and Just Cause 3

So 2015 has come and gone and we got a lot of fantastic, diverse games this year. However, there's an old saying that "the more things change the more they stay the same." While many games strive to bring new things to the table others endeavored to simply deliver a familiar experience. This worked really well for some games like Bloodborne and Fallout 4, but for other it feels like they are just running the numbers and are in desperate need of fresh ideas. Here are three games form last year that I haven't had the chance to play yet, but still want to talk about.

Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Assassin's Creed Syndicate is set in Victorian London and has two protagonists. Those are the only interesting things in this game.

Another year, another Assassin's Creed game comes out. After the disaster that was 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity the next Assassin's Creed just needed to be good. Thankfully, it seems that Assassin's Creed Unity is just that. A return to basics with the only real gimmick being the dual twin protagonists Jacob and Evie Fyre. However, from what I've been hearing most people would have preferred if Evie had been the sole protagonist of the game as she is a far more interesting and likable character then her brother Jacob, who seems to be a giant, snarky asshole. It seems that Ubisoft keeps trying to make another Ezio from Assassin's Creed 2 without understanding the subtlities that made him an interesting character in the first place. The Assassin's Creed franchise is thankfully taking a break this year so hopefully when it comes back in 2017 we actually get a great game again.

Rise of the Tomb Raider

I do know that the Tomb Raider reboot has some grisly death animations. I'd hate to see what this bear does to Lara Croft.

I know next to nothing about the Tomb Raider series and even less about the reboot series. I have two friends that have played the game. One who was a fan of the series from the beginning and absolutely despised the reboot for turning a unique environment exploration game into an Uncharted clone, and the other who has only played the first game in the reboot series thought it was alright. I personally curious about checking out the reboot as several game journalists I like such as Laura Kate Dale seem to really like the game. But since Rise of the Tomb Raider is currently an Xbox One exclusive and even though a PC port is coming my laptop prays for the sweet release of death everyday so I'll have to wait for the PS4 port of the game. I'm honestly not sure what to think of the reboot Tomb Raider and I'll likely have to check it out on my own before I give an honest suggestion. It very much seems to be a love it or hate it game.

Just Cause 3

Just Cause protagonist Rico Rodriguez and his physics defying grappling hook. 

I heard nothing but good things about the Just Cause games. Zero Punctuation gave the previous game in the series Just Cause 2 his 2010 Game of the Year, and general consensus is that the series is a wacky over the top physics defying explosion fest that will leave you on the edge of your set from beginning to end.   Just Cause 3 seems to be more the same with cooperative multiplayer which is fine, but I have heard that there was a great deal of behinds the scenes drama with developer Avalanche Studios and their publisher Square Enix. Apparently, Square Enix wanted the game to be a multiplayer only PC exclusive game because at the beginning of this console generation they had not faith that console games would be successful. When they were proven wrong they demanded Avalanche add a single player mode only about a year before the end of development. Traces of this rapid change in direction can be seen in the underwhelming single player campaign and the horrendous loading times on consoles. Still from what I hear the game is good so if that floats your boat I'd recommend checking it out.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 11: Octopus Surgeon Simulator

In the final episode of my Octodad Let's Play. Octodad gets a phone call from his long lost brother telling him that one of his patient is going into cardiac arrest. It then a rush to the emergency room to perform surgery to save this man's life.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 10: Paging Nurse Octodad

In the penultimate episode of our adventure in the world of Octodad, we finish up our date with Scarlet and then enter the strange imaginary hospital story concocted by Tommy and Stacy that puts Octodad in the role of a nurse helping patients.

Three Environments That I Would Love To See In A Bloodborne Sequel

One of my absolute favorite things about Bloodborne were it's amazing environments. From the gothic urban landscape of The City of Yharnam, the eerie decayed gloom of the Forbidden Woods, to the bizarre alien landscapes of the Nightmare Realms. However, I do feel that there were a few kinds of environments that would have worked well in Bloodborne and could hopefully be featured in a sequel. Here are three environments that I would love to see in a Bloodborne sequel.

Factory and/or Slaughterhouse

Amnesia A Machine For Pigs is close what I imagine the aesthetic design of a factory level From Software could put into a future Bloodborne sequel.

I was surprised the first time I played Bloodborne that there wasn't some kind of industrial factory level given the Victorian England inspired setting. With the morbid history of abysmal health standards and inhuman working conditions a slaughterhouse where the people of Yharnam processed the corpses of beasts would have felt right at home in Bloodborne. I could imagine insane pig beasts roaming catwalks manning over grisly meat grinders that they could push unsuspecting hunters in. Maybe From Software avoided using a level like this because it would have reminded people of Amnesia A Machine For Pigs, but I think that they could have pulled it off. Here's hoping it that the idea will make it into a sequel.

Ancient Ruins of Lost Civilization

Exploring a desert and seeing the ruins of a long lost civilization come into view always makes me thing of Journey. I think a Bloodborne sequel could easily capture a similar feeling...only with horrible beasts to kill along the way.

One of the things that annoyed me most about the Chalice Dungeons is that the areas that the item descriptions for the chalices described sounded much more interesting than copy pasted environments of the dungeons you ended up exploring. Imagine if you found Ailing Loran by finding an artifact that causes a boat to appear on the coast of Byrgenwerth that takes you to the edge of a vast desert. After crossing the desert you find a massive city buried in the sand and explore a well crafted environment with it's own unique feel and threats that you had to over come. That would be incredible. So for a Bloodborne sequel I hope From Software does exactly that instead of making it a skin for certain Chalice Dungeons.

Underwater Alien City 

The H. P. Lovecraft inspirations of Bloodborne are pretty heavy. Cosmic beings that transcend human understanding, tangible dream worlds where one's consciousness can live on even after death, and interbreeding with alien creatures with the hope of becoming something greater than humanity. The Old Hunters expansion even adds an area called The Fishing Hamlet that directly references the Lovecraft novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth. However, I would like to see a Bloodborne sequel try and make a level that mirrors the underwater cities that Lovecraft wrote about in his stories like R'lyeh and Y'ha-nthlei. Imagine is you enter the mouth of a large sea monster that takes you to a strange alien city at the bottom of the sea and do battle aganist strange aquatic creatures before fighting a powerful Great One at the end of the level. It would be awesome. I have faith that From Software will always deliver us quality games and that if they do make a Bloodborne sequel it will be good. Now I just have to wait for Dark Souls 3.

Splatoon Review: I'm A Kid Now, I'm A Squid Now!

You're a kid now, you're a squid now!

You're a kid now, You're a squid now, You're a kid now, You're a squid now, You're a kid now, You're a squid now, You're a kid now, You're a squid now, You're a kid now, You're a squid now...

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Version(s): Exclusive to Wii U
Price: $59.99
Release: May 29th, 2015

If I had obtained my Wii U and played Splatoon last year I can say without any doubt in my mind that it would have been in my Top Five Games of 2015. Sadly I was not able to get my Wii U until just a week ago, but that doesn't stop me from saying Splatoon is one of the funniest multiplayer shooters I have played in a long time. I'm not usually a fan of multiplayer games in general, but Splatoon managed to win me over. How exactly did it accomplish this feat! Well let me tell you.

A Boy and Girl Inkling.

Splatoon puts in the role of an Inkling, a squid like creature that can switch between a humanoid kid form that can run around and shoot ink using special paint gun-like weaponry and cepholpod squid form that can phase into their ink and swim through it real fast, who is trying to make a name for themselves on Inkopolis' Turf War scene which the city of Inkopolis' society is built upon. Meanwhile, the Great Zapfish that powers the city has been stolen by the evil Octarians who are planning on taking over Inkopolis. The game is split between the main multiplayer mode where you go up against other players online to make a name for yourself in the world of Splatoon and a single player Hero Mode were you team up with an old crazy guy named Cap'n Cuttlefish to stop the Octarian menace and save Inkopolis.

Inkopolis Plaza is the central hub of activity in Splatoon.

I think the first major thing that drew me to Splatoon over other multiplayer shooter games was is wonderfully colorful aesthetic design. In a world where the majority of games coming out try their absolute hardest to be dark and edgy with lots of browns, grays, and black color palettes that quite frankly are just awful to look at half the time it is always great to see a game as lighthearted and colorful as Splatoon come along. The world of Splatoon is also great fun to be in with it wonderful mix of modern day pop culture, Japanese mythology, and aquatic ocean life. I just loved every second that I was in the world of Splatoon and was always sad when I had to leave.

The Sunken Scrolls are hidden collectibles found in Splatoon's Hero's Mode which explain the backstory of the world.

The next major thing about Splatoon and its main attraction is the excellent multiplayer.Unlike most multiplayer shooters that prioritize killing other players and the team/player that gets the most kills usually wins, Splatoon's main multiplayer mode is all about covering the environment around you with ink with a variety of fun weaponry ranging from rapid fire paint guns and giant rollers. The team that has the most ink on the map at the end of the match wins. Killing other players, which is called Spatting, takes a back seat compared to simply painting the environment around you. The only reason you even need to attack other players is that they will try and stop you from spreading your ink so you need to stop them first. Matches are fairly short, but there's never a dull moment in those few minutes and you will undoubtedly want to play another right after. Players have a great deal of customization for their characters. Winning matches accumulates Cash that players can spend on new weapons and gear that gives you passive bonuses in matches. During special in game events called Splatfests you can obtain another type of currency called Super Sea Snails that you can use to modify gear. Overall the core of Splatoon is utterly fantastic. However, for as much as I like Splatoon there are a few issues I have with it.

An Inkling shopping for weapons at the Ammo Knights store.

While Turf War is the main mode of the game it does get a little repetitive after a while, but as of the time of writing it is the only regular multiplayer mode you can participate in without doing anything special. To access the other game modes the game has to offer you have to get to Level 10 to access Ranked Battles that have several other game modes you can participate in. There is also no easy way to arrange battles with friends and it is very easy to end up waiting up to a half an hour to get in a match with your friends because other people keep joining the game before you. You also can't switch out gear without leaving matchmaking. Given that in other multiplayer shooter games like Destiny where you can change your gear in the middle of a match that is just unacceptable.

In spite of several problems I have, Splatoon is a fantastic game!

But in spite of my few issues with Splatoon it still a fantastic game overall. Where every game these day is trying so hard to be dark and mature that that suck all the fun in the process Splatoon is just a ton of lighthearted fun that makes you feel happy which is honestly something I really need for a good long while now. If you have a Wii U and still haven't picked up Splatoon I highly recommend it. I'm so happy to finally have a Wii U and games that are just raw concentrated fun and I can wait to dive deeper in Splatoon over the next few months...I'm a kid now and a squid now!

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 9: DLC Dinner For Two

Octodad's main adventure might be over, but we still have two DLC shorts to get through. The first adventure puts in Octodad's shoes during his first date with Scarlet and a very close encounter with the Chef.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 8: The Final Battle

Octodad finally makes it to the food court to save his family. Together they have a chance of defeating the mad Chef that has been hellbent on ruining Octodad's life for years. It is the epic finale of Octodad's main campaign.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 7: Mortal Danger and Wacky Hi-jinks

In this episode Octodad escapes from the aquarium and must make his way to the food court to save his family...without his ingenious disguise. We're getting close to the end.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad Part 6: Metal Gear Octopus

After being pushed into the aquarium by The Chef, Octodad has a flashback about the day he first met his wife Scarlet. Things are getting interesting now.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 5: Exploring The Deep Dark Abyss

In this episode, Octodad enter's the deep sea exhibit with Stacy and must find his way through the dark. Then he tries to patch things up with Scarlet only to fall into a dastardly trap.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 4: Stop Being Such A Downer Scarlet

When we last left Octodad, he was entering the Amazon Arcade to try and patch things up with Scarlet. Watch as Octodad wins prizes for his wife and I clumsily reference FilmCow's Fannie and Earl series of videos.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 3: THE WORLD OF KELP

Octodad finds Tommy in the World of Kelp section of the Aquarium and since Tommy is too cool to learn stuff apparently we rush through this area as fast as possible. Fun Fact: I don't like Tommy that much.

Perception Preview: Wandering Darkness With Blind Eyes Has Never Seemed So Fascinating

The first game from The Deep End Games, founded by Bill Gardner, a Irrational Games alumni.

It's hard to believe that only a few years ago survival horror games were a dying genre. During the seventh console generation horror games basically became nonexistent and classic horror franchises such as Resident Evil were reinvented themselves as generic action games as some sort of misguided effort to appeal to absolutely everyone. Then Amnesia The Dark Descent came out of nowhere and single-handily revived the entire genre. Like most things in life this revival ended up being double edged sword. While it was great that survival horror was back and we have got a lot of great horror games in the bargain like Outlast and Alien Isolation, it also began the plague of low quality first person survival horror games that exist only to bait the likes of PewDiePie and Markiplier in hopes of making a quick buck. These days horror games are a dime a dozen and for one to really stand out it either has to be extremely well made or have a very interesting gameplay mechanic. Thankfully, it looks like Perception is looking to have both of those things.

Perception features a minimalist art style because its player character Cassie can see colors.

Perception is setting up to be the debut game of independent game studio The Deep End Games. The Deep End Games is made up of veteran game developers that have worked on games from big name franchises such as BioShock and Dead Space. Perception is a game in which players are placed in the role of a blind woman named Cassie who travels to a mysterious estate to try and unravel the secrets held there and how they connect to the mysterious force known as The Presence that seems to have followed Cassie for her entire life. While the game is shaping up to have the familiar trappings of other horror games such as hiding from unkillable enemies and finding keys to progress, it has one very interesting gameplay mechanic that I shocked hasn't been thought of before.

The central mechanic of Perception demonstrated in one simple GIF image.

Since Cassie is blind the only way the player can navigate the environment is through echo location. Cassie is armed with a cane that she can tap on the ground at any time to reveal a small amount of detail of the world around her. Wind and sounds from other things and creatures in the environment can also reveal some of the environment. Cassie also has a cell phone with a text to speech app that she can use to translate notes that she finds throughout the house. Being a survival horror game there are also enemies that Cassie has to contend with. So far the only enemies shown have be strange clockwork dolls that ramble nonsense as they attempt to kill Cassie with freaking pistols and the mysterious force known as The Presence that apparently hunts Cassie the entire game.

Cassie hiding from The Presence.

That is all anyone really knows about the game so far, but still Perception is shaping up to be one hell of a horror experience. I have a great deal of confidence with The Deep End Games given the staff's pedigree with other projects in the past. The game is currently set to release only on Microsoft Windows, but I hope that the game's sales are successful enough to facilitate its release on other platforms as well. The best of luck to The Deep End Games and to the hope that Perception will be a great game.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 2: Mundane Tasks

In part two of Octodad's adventure we go shopping for groceries, but being force to go to the aquarium by our wife lady person. Then our family splits up and we are force to go find them one by one.

YouTube Channel: Let's Play Octodad: Dadliest Catch Part 1: Cthulhu Wedding

This is my second Let's Play series and the first one I'm doing with commentary. In this first episode, Octodad gets married to his lovey fiance Scarlet and then skips ahead in time to an average day at home, before finally going out to get groceries. And so Octodad's adventure begins.

YouTube Channel: Suddenly Deathclaw

One of the perils of exploring the wasteland is never quite know what your going to find or what is going to happen next. This is just one surprising moment that helped make a regular quest feel so much more memorable.

YouTube Channel: My Sister Kills Darth Vader

My sister plays Star Wars Battlefront way more than me. We both excel at different modes and characters. While I prefer playing as hero characters, my sister prefers playing as just a regular soldier. She proved how good she can be sometimes, by taking out Darth Vader almost entirely by herself which is pretty cool. She was killed immediately after by a regular stormtropper, but that is just the way the multiplayer shooter cookie crumbles sometimes I suppose.

YouTube Channel: Preston Ghost Through A Wall

Yet another Fallout 4 glitch! This time we see Preston magically phases through a wall as we turn some quests and fail to escape while he gives us more we don't want to do. Typical Fallout 4 Stuff.

YouTube Channel: Kicking Ass As Han Solo

I'm a big fan of the gun wielding heroes in Battlefront. So since I already showed you guys me kicking as Boba Fett I minus well show you me kicking ass as his rival Han Solo.

The Simpsons Hit & Run Review: A Great Licensed Grand Theft Auto Clone

The Best Simpsons Game EVER!!!

Developer: Radical Entertainment
Publisher: Vivendi Games
Version(s): PlayStation 2, Gamecube, Xbox, and Microsoft Windows
Price: $19.99
Release: September 16th, 2003

Back in early 2000s, Sony's Playstation 2 took the world by storm with it's many awesome games and great third party support. While there were a lot of great games of the PS2, the third party support also had the effect of draining the system in a sea of derivative games. Meaning that for every masterpiece like Kingdom Hearts or Shadow of the Colossus there was about a dozen crappy licensed games like Catwoman and Alvin and the Chipmunks. Licensed games have always had a bad reputation of being slapped together to capitalize on recognizable franchises, but occasionally you would find a diamond floating in the middle of the river of shit that was third party PS2 games. The Simpsons Hit & Run is one such game.

The Simpson's Hit & Run might look a lot and play a lot like Grand Theft Auto, but it is without a doubt an authentic Simpson's experience.

Developed by Radical Entertainment and most recently known for their Prototype series. The Simpsons Hit & Run is a spiritual successor to the studio's previous Simpson game The Simpsons Road Rage. The story is the city of Springfield is being spied on by mysterious bee shaped camera and black vans all while a new soda called Buzz Cola is seemingly driving the populous of the town insane. It is up to the Simpsons family (and Apu) to get to the bottom of this mystery and figure out who is behind all the madness. If you are a fan of The Simpsons, especially the early years of the show, you will love this game. You can tell just by looking at the game that the designers absolutely love The Simpsons. The game features most of the show's massive supporting cast with all of their repective voice actors, but is written by the actual writers of the show. Leading to a funny and authentic Simpson's experience.

There are costumes that you can purchase for each character. Some are just for fun and others are required to finish missions.

The game is divided up into seven chapters, three zones, and five playable Simpson Characters. Each chapter has you take the role of one member of The Simpson's completely missions, finding collectibles, and taking part in side missions. While the game only has three zones to explore they often change between chapters meaning that you will likely find something or visit a new locations that wasn't there in a previous chapter. There are also 42 cars to collect with an extra 7 hidden in each of the chapters. The game is nothing ground breaking or original, but it is well designed fun that will leave you entertained from beginning to end.

There are a lot of references to many episodes of The Simpsons throughout the game.

Today, the reputation of licensed games being doomed to be giant pieces of crap is thankfully becoming a thing of the past. Video games have become a center of popular culture and even the most shady of companies would think twice before shitting out a half baked, piece of crap game based on a popular franchise these days. (Unless it's on mobile phones in which case avoid them like the plague.) Still, The Simpson's Hit & Run was a great little game from an era where licensed games were basically dead on arrival. You can find The Simpson's Hit & Run at most game shops and shopping websites for pretty cheap these days and as long as you have at least one of the sixth generation platforms ( PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox) you can enjoy this wonderful game too.

YouTube Channel: Physics Defying Car

First video of the New Year! Physics and Bethesda Games have always had a rocky relationship with each other. This is one of those moments where the physics of Fallout 4 decided that they were being too realistic and needed to spice things up.