Mafia Definitive Edition [Review]

On By fonsoqIn GamingLeave a comment
  • Mafia : Definitive Edition
  • Rated M
  • Hanger 13
  • “Mafia Engine”
  • Xbox One, PS4, PC
  • Release: September 25, 2020
  • Purchased personal copy on Xbox One

Thomas Angelo is a cab driver in the city of Lost Heaven. Like many Americans in the year 1930, Tommy is struggling from the aftermath of the Great 2Depression. With many out of work, fares come far and few in-between. Meanwhile, organized crime is picking up with the demand of illegal alcohol sales during prohibition. One night, he is forced to cabbie for a couple of guys being chased down by their rivals, the Morello gang. His passengers thank him and offer him a job, but he declines as the life of crime is not for him. He is later tracked down by Morello’s gang and is forced to find help with the Salieri family. Tommy’s life has changed but will he let the life of crime consume him?

Mafia : Definitive Edition is a remake of 2002’s Mafia made in Mafia 3‘s engine. Modernizing the core gameplay and redoing the setting, voice acting, and expanding the story.

Mafia DE at its core is a cover based 3rd person shooter. Gameplay consists of a mix of driving and on foot combat with a small mix of melee and ranged weapons. In between combat sections, you’ll find yourself driving across the city of Lost Heaven in a variety of cars.

While Mafia : DE can be considered an open world game, it is very linear experience. The game is divided into chapters that guide you from point a to point b, with no real need to explore the city outside of the mission.

I’d like to start off with the fact that I have never played the original Mafia from 2002, but I have played 2 & 3. It definitely feels like an offshoot of Mafia 3, while retaining the feel of a game of a game from the early 2000’s. There isn’t a lot to do outside the main story,  but that isnt a problem here. Mafia 3 would have been better if it was condensed like Mafia DE. DE‘s totals game length is just right – little to no filler chapters, a handful of collectibles, and no extraneous side missions. It’s a straightforward experience.

The story is the best part of the game. Following Tommy’s journey from cabbie to his life in the mafia is great. Aside from the notorious racing chapter, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Lost Heaven. I even enjoyed having to watch my speeding around town before calling unwanted attention from the law.

Despite being built on the foundation of Mafia 3, the gunplay and driving could have been better. These two things weren’t perfect in 3, but the shooting always feels a bit random as none of the weapons ever feel 100% accurate.

Driving feels what i assume driving a 30’s era car would feel like, not very fun at high speed. Which detracts a bit as you’ll often find yourself getting chased down by enemies. During the chases, turns will be your biggest obstacle. The game supplements this by adding road hazards that you bait the enemy into.

Mafia Definitive Edition is definitely a product of the early 2000’s, but it is a great story that is cleaned up and modernized that is still worth playing. It does just enough without getting too overwhelming.

  • + Great Story
  • + “Meat and Potatoes” kind of game.
  • – Combat/ Driving could be better

Great

Marvel’s Avengers [Review]

On By fonsoqIn GamingLeave a comment
  • Marvel’s Avengers
  • Rated T
  • Crystal Dynamics
  • Foundation Engine
  • Xbox One, PS4, PC
  • Release: September 3, 2020
  • Purchased personal copy on Xbox One

Marvel’s Avengers takes place after an event called “A-Day.” A day meant to celebrate the Avengers, but ultimately turns to tragedy. The aftermath of A-Day leaves many people to turn Inhuman, as they manifest strange powers and abilities. With the destruction of the city, the death of Captain America, and the cause of the “inhuman disease”, the Avengers were broken up and outlawed by the government. A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) was granted the acquisition of Stark Industries and now leads in containing the inhuman spread. One of those people attending the A-Day festivities was Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel). Five years after the disaster, Kamala is outed as an Inhuman and is set on the path to find the Inhuman resistance against A.I.M’s terror.

Marvel’s Avengers is a 3rd person action-adventure game that makes its Tomb Raider lineage very apparent. It retains the movement system and and adds a flavoring of super hero. Non-flying characters still retain the wall scramble and grapple swing like Lara Croft. Expanding upon the Tomb Raider formula, the game adds a support ability, an offensive ability, an ultimate ability, and a passive gauge to each character. These can be further modified with the skill points that are earned per character level.

While the character level is important, the more essential gauge is the gear score. Gear is randomly dropped by enemies and can be found in chests that dot the large map. Depending on rarity, you can upgrade items with crafting supplies that are earned from either breaking down old gear or finding it in game.

There is also a premium currency in game that can be used to buy cosmetics. Though you can also buy cosmetics with a different currency you earn ingame.

Marvel’s Avengers greatest strength is its story. Following Kamala’s path from kid from Jersey City to Ms. Marvel is great. Each story beat will pull you along and will leave you wondering to what happens next. Coupling the story is solid gameplay. Each Avenger brings their unique style of play to combat, which helps freshen up the gameplay loop once you unlock them. They offer a nice variety of combat abilities between them. Though not every character can complete all the side objectives found on the map. Some characters don’t have the ability to break down large doors/weak walls. Which is an annoyance when you play by yourself, but obviously not an issue when playing online. Beyond the main story beats, the side missions are nice padding but boil down to go to an area and wait for the timer to complete.

Playing the story missions and the some of the side chapters will only net you around gear level 25 for a handful of your characters. The game however gives you additional ways to gear up with faction markets, but that in itself requires a grind to level up the relationship with each faction to get the best gear. Then the only other hope would be to get random loot drops in mission. While the random loot itself isn’t a problem, a character can only hold nine items per equipment slot. Any extra gear gets sent to the inventory locker, which is only accessible from either the home base or the mission prep screen. Since the items This results in a lot of time in the menu braking down old loot.

Later levels in the game will consistently drop frames as the combat gets more frantic. Occasionally, you’ll also find yourself stuck in a slow motion glitch. This’ll cause everything to slow down until you complete the section. Some outfits also have problems, some cause a weird glitch with the hair of characters causing a phantom shadow that follows the movement of the hair. While one specific outfit causes the facial animations to break with the eyes bugging out and the mouth to over animate. A shame too, its probably the best outfit for that character. [NOTE: Crystal Dynamics has pushed a patch after the writing of this review, thus fixing this issue.]

Overall

Marvel’s Avengers strong points is in its main story campaign with a strong gameplay base, however it wears down quickly with repetitive mission structure.

  • + Great Story
  • + Fun Gameplay
  • – Grindy Post Campaign
  • – Repetitive mission structure
  • – Loot System
  • – Graphical Issues

GOOD

Doom:Eternal Single Player [Review]

On By fonsoqIn GamingLeave a comment
  • Doom: Eternal
  • Rated M
  • iD Software
  • iD Tech 7
  • Xbox One, PS4, PC
  • Release: March 20, 2020
  • Purchased personal copy on Xbox One X

Doom: Eternal is a sequel to 2016’s Doom. You are the Doom Slayer, a human turned demon hunter. You are the only one who can cleanse the planet from demonic control. We find the Doom Slayer on the hunt to find the demonic priest to end their rule on Earth.

After beating the first level, you are then introduced to the hub level. Here you can continue to the next story mission or even select to replay a past mission. The hub level also is a showcase of all the collectibles you have found. Scattered throughout this hub are also Easter eggs and player upgrades locked behind doors. You unlock these by getting sentinel batteries, which can be earned by completing challenges in each of the levels.

As you progress through Eternal, you earn weapon upgrades, ability enhancements, and suit upgrades. Like Doom 2016, you earn up to two attachments for most weapons. Upon upgrading the attachment you can then unlock weapon masteries for each. These masteries are weapon specific challenges that will unlock a great improvement to the weapon. For example, unlocking the super shotgun’s mastery will cause any enemy hit with the hook shot to drop armor bits. Finding the runes and praetor points will unlock new abilities like faster weapon swapping and faster glory kills.

Doom Eternal also added a more mobile Doom Slayer. With the double jump, a dash, and the ability to wall climb on specific surfaces, it allows for some platforming to be mingled in between fights. Also new in ths game is the equipment launcher, allowing you to use a short burst flamethrower and choose between an ice bomb or a frag grenade as a secondary use. All three of these will recharge over time.

Throughout the game you’ll also find sentinel crystals. These will upgrade your base ammo, health, or armor up to four times each. With every two of these crystal unlocks comes a special trait. These vary from unlocking a bigger drop magnet radius to a faster armor drop rate. Other upgrades will help fill your “Blood Punch,” which is a boosted melee attack that deals more damage and can wipe out a group of weaker enemies once upgraded.

The combination of these systems is what makes Eternal great. Once you obtain all the tools the game offers, you begin to chain the systems together and tailor the upgrades to your flavor of playstyle. The game becomes more of a strategy game. The objective being clearing the room of demons while you keep an eye on your scarce resources. Using what you have to create momentum for yourself by sweeping up the ants instead of directly butting heads with the elephant in the room.

Depending on which weapons you have and how much ammo is left, you have to decide on which enemy to take out first. Do you use your blood punch on the Cyber Mancubus or do you use the heavier weapons to do that saving the punch for the Hell Knight? If you’re low on ammo, can you get to a lower level enemy to use the chainsaw? If you need health and armor, can you pick off a few with glory kills for some quick health or use the shotgun hook to free a few armor shards? On Ultra Violence, you’ll need a answer to these questions all while dodging enemies that chase you while other enemies fire from afar.

Playing through the campaign on Ultra-Violence, the game is only really challenging in the beginning. By unlocking weapon masteries and suit abilities, the game only gets easier. Despite throwing even harder enemies at you, once you fine tune your loadout you’ll overcome no matter what hell awaits.

Fantastic

Doom: Eternal succeeds in being a fun shooter that makes you plan your onslaught a few steps ahead. Like a good strategy game, you’ll have to have a move to counter what ever the game throws at you. While the limited ammo capacity is frustrating at times, it does add to the overall game loop.

  • + Strategic Combat
  • + Fast Traveling back to earlier parts of the map helps collectible hunting
  • + A variety of enemies will keep you on your toes
  • + Hook Shot is really fun to use
  • – A few bugs

Star Wars Jedi : Fallen Order [Review]

On By fonsoqIn Gaming
  • Star Wars Jedi : Fallen Order
  • Rated T
  • Respawn Entertainment
  • Xbox One, PS4, PC
  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Release: November 16, 2019
  • Purchased personal copy on Xbox One X

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order takes place during the time between Episode III and IV. In the aftermath of Order 66, you take control of Cal Kestis, a former Jedi Padawan on a quest to survive the Empire’s quest to hunt all Jedi.

The basic combat loop is similar to Dark Souls, in which you slowly make your way through an area defeating enemies that can provide a good challenge. While Fallen Order doesn’t incorporate an equipment buffs/debuffs system, it does include a stamina/poise system with refillable health stims. Each section of combat is broken up with rest areas known as meditation points. Here you can bank earned xp and assign earned talent points. Resting will refill your health packs, force meter, and respawn most enemies.

With enough XP, you can earn skill points to upgrade Cal through three paths. The force path will give you more force points and upgrade any powers you have unlocked. The lightsaber path will unlock new combat abilities. The survival path will give upgrades to health and other defensive abilities.

Outside of combat, the game includes an exploration system akin to Tomb Raider. Each map you travel to is filled with areas and paths locked behind the next ability upgrade. The game rewards exploration with extra bits of lore and customization options. You have the ability to customize Cal’s wardrobe, lightsaber, and ship. Most of these options are purely cosmetic and offer no gameplay bonuses, aside from finding more health stims.

While I’m not a big fan of the Souls games, Fallen Order is a blast to play. Through my playthrough on Jedi Master difficulty, this game doesn’t hold your hand. Aside from the basic tutorials, the game doesn’t shove hints and solutions in your face. It nutures the idea that the player is competent can think for themselves. Even in puzzle situations, the game doesn’t highlight every puzzle piece in gold nor does it immediately tell you the end goal. If you take enough time however, the game will ask if you need a hint. The only other break is on platforming. Where if you miss a jump, it only penalizes you a fraction of health instead of the respawn screen.

The movement system is very polished, running around the world feels great. Respawn Entertainment continues their reputation in having very fluid and fun movement systems. Chaining wallruns, jumps, and rope swings makes you feel like the agile Jedi you are. Each area has a nice variety of enemies and puzzles to solve. There are also optional paths to explore throughout the game. Exploration is rewarding, but trying to retread the entire map to 100% the game is a pain. Some maps eventually turn to spaghetti with new abilities unlocking new routes that add more map density. This makes trying to figure out your path difficult and not worth the headache of trying to remember which route you took to get to this specific part of the map.

Combat is challenging from start to end, but you earn alot of tools at your disposal that can give you the edge in battle. Where in the beginning, a single large crab creature can pose a significant threat and by the end you’re chaining combos, force powers, dodges, and parries on groups of enemies. Defeating enemies is exciting and finding the flow of complex Jedi combat is something that hasn’t really been done since The Force Unleashed. Like Cal, you eventually grow into becoming a more competent Jedi. While tough, I feel that it is very fair. Seldomly did I find myself saying that something was cheap. I also never found myself wanting to turn the difficulty down just to pass a section. Every death handed to me was from something I knew I could overcome the next time I tried.

Narratively, the game is great as well. Cal’s journey is filled with great characters and fantastic settings. Exploring a dark time of the Jedi that hasn’t been fleshed out too much in canon is refreshing. Going off the beaten path will reward you with extra bits of lore through Cal’s special ability to read the past from force echos or items with strong connections to the force.

Graphically, the Unreal Engine does a great job at rendering the Star Wars universe, especially in 4k on Xbox One X. The game will however, dip in frame rate and chug for brief moments in later stages. Another gripe I have is the occasional twitching of certain fabrics and strands of hair. While both are small, it is very distracting when it does happen it can pull you out of the moment. There is a performance mode in the settings that should stabalize the frame rate but it locks the game at 1080 instead of 4k. The game does a good job at hiding loading screens, though occasionally if you try to return to a previous section of a level too quickly after entering a new one, you are met with the game pausing itself to reload the section.

Overall

Fallen Order is a fantastic game but is blemished by a few problems. These small gripes though aren’t enough to overcome the great gameplay and a fantastic story.

  • +Great Challenging Combat
  • +Fantastic story
  • +Great upgrade system
  • +Doesn’t hold your hand
  • -Few technical problems
  • -Retreading areas can be a pain

Fantastic

The Outer Worlds [Impressions]

On By fonsoqIn Gaming
  • The Outer Worlds
  • rated M
  • Obsidian Entertainment
  • Unreal Engine 4
  • Release: October 25, 2019
  • PS4, Xbox One, PC. Nintendo Switch (2020)
  • Played through Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One X

With games like Star Wars: Kotor 2, Fallout: New Vegas, and the more recent Pillars of Eternity (not to mention their Black Isle roots) Obsidian has a long lineage of great RPGs. That lineage continues with The Outer Worlds. The game takes place in a universe where megacorporations have decided to colonize the furthest reaches of space. You play as a settler who has been awakened abruptly from cryosleep. You are then thrown into a strange new life where you must discover the true intentions of the corporations around you.

Spacer’s roads take me home

While only 15 hours into The Outer Worlds, I feel Obsidian’s newest entry doesn’t disappoint. It definitely fills the void for FPSs with deeper RPG mechanics that are more like Fallout 3 rather than 4. While it doesn’t have the big open world, The Outer Worlds choses instead to have alot of smaller, but still pretty open, areas available to travel to from your space ship hub. These areas have places to explore and worthy sidequests to complete.

The writing is a good mix of characters being utterly serious while maintaining comic undertones. This is where the game shines. Obsidian has created a great world filled with believable characters. Quests are open ended and can be solved multiple ways. Whether you want to be persuasive diplomat or the ruthless space cowboy, the story is yours to make.

Tagging along on your story are a group of enjoyable companions. For the ones who want to Lone Wanderer it all, you can absolutely do that. While I haven’t met every companion in the game, I feel that each one is worthwhile to drag along. They often talk to each other sharing stories or commenting on their surroundings. Besides chit chat, they also offer bonuses to your character in both combat and skill buffs. Each also has a special move they can unleash in battle. You can tune companions to your liking by choosing their perks and defining their combat roles.

The base game mechanics include a solid FPS base with the options to go in quiet or go loud with the good variety of weapons, skills, and armor loadouts. Weapon and armor mods further fit your playstyle. Each time you level up, you further strengthen your skills as you please and with every 2nd level you can choose a perk. The game also features a “flaw” system where it can give you debuffs and in return will give you perk points if you choose to accept. For example, jumping off high ledges too many times can give you weak legs. This debuffs your movement but gives you a valuable perk point to spend as you please.

According to other online sources, The Outer Worlds can take between 15 to 40 hours to complete. With 15 hours spent in my playthrough, I feel that I have barely scratched the surface and I can’t wait to see what else the game throws at me.

In Summary

  • + A great RPG with great gameplay
  • + Fantastic companions
  • + A good variety of loot
  • + Meaningful choices so far
  • + Fast travel straight into ship
  • – A bit glitchy at times

Stay tuned for the full review!

[No Spoilers] Avengers Endgame : A Quick Review

On By fonsoqIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Synopsis

Officially starting with 2008’s Iron Man, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame is a culmination of 11 years of movies. With the aftermath of Infinity War, we see the Avengers pick up the pieces and try to save what’s left. Staring a plethora of actors and was directed by Joe and Anthony Russo. It runs just over three hours.

Review

Avengers Re- Assemble
Endgame is a worthy spectacle for the three hours it asks of you. It definitely doesn’t disappoint. Filled with beautiful shots, great jokes, and wonderful action sequences, Endgame is the best of what the MCU has to offer.

Overall: Fantastic

Bohemian Rhapsody : a Quick Review

On By fonsoqIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Synopsis:

Starring Rami Malek as Freddie, the movie follows Mercury joining a small college band called “Smile” to what would become one of the most influential British bands. Filling out the rest of the band: Gwilym Lee as Brian May, Ben Hardy as Roger Taylor, and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon. Bohemian Rhapsody follows Queen from its inception to its finest half-hour performance at Live Aid.

Its rated PG-13 and runs at just over 2 hours. Directed by Bryan Singer/ Drex Fletcher.

Review:

Don’t Stop Me Now

Almost as a disclaimer, I am a sucker for musical biopics like Bohemian Rhapsody. That said, the movie is great. The movie’s casting is great, and Rami’s portrayal of Freddie steals the show.

The movie tries to compact a 20 year span into 2 hours, but it can only do so much within that time. It highlights most of the band’s history while giving the spotlight to Freddie’s struggles in life and the band’s love of making music.

Just like the band, the movie knows how to grab your attention and never let go. The movie shows range from drama to a bit of cheeky humor, so it isn’t all doom and gloom. I would definitely recommend the watch if you enjoy musical biopics or just love Queen.

Overall : GREAT

A few recommendations:

Queen’s Rock Montreal : if you want some more Live Queen performances.

Walk the Line, if you are in the mood for another musical biopic.

Mariachi Gringo, if you are in the mood for a bit of fiction.

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth if you are in the mood for more of a music documentary .

The Journey Begins

On By Codigo AztechaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Thanks for joining us! To start off, here are a collection of quotes from a variety of people.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful, because we’re too busy bridging the walk from the cafeteria back to the office on the cell phone. — Steven Spielberg

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. —Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the beginning, when I was doing my shows, I was incorporating a lot of Spanish, just trying to be a Latino comic instead of just a comic. Now I try to make the show as broad as possible… I don’t want to alienate people. I want to make it so everybody can follow along and everybody can relate. — Gabriel Iglesias

Rock and Roll is imperfection and flaws and 4 or 5, or 6, or 8 people playing together and its not going to line up, its going to be a little f**ked up. It should be, that’s what  human beings are, human beings aren’t perfect. — Chris Shiflett

I remember I used to think my dad was really cool working at a factory. He used to make buttons. I used to brag, ‘This button here, My dad made it.’ There was this sense of pride. It’s knowing your dad is doing something cool. — Michael Pena

That idea that so many immigrants have to give their kids a better chance, they’re the real success stories.—  Narciso Rodriguez

We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color. —Maya Angelou

I just know you can not be on top forever. There’s always going to be the next guy, and if I’m going to go down, I’d like to know I helped the next guy take my spot. You can’t prevent the inevitable, but you can join the ship. — Gabriel Iglesias

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This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened … It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. —John F. Kennedy