Burke Burke

I'm not going to lie. I enjoyed this game, and I know exactly why. It was a very long and standalone DLC to Borderlands 2. Not much has changed since then, and I don't really mind all that much. I had hoped for more unique changes for the pricing, but I also still have fun with 2 to this day, so even the small changes are welcome. That being said, the game in its current state is a very messy release, if you play the game start to finish I guarantee you will either get stuck on some geometry, have dialogue out of place and far from where the character or current quest is at that moment, or a pivotal cutscenes won't trigger until you're in some strange and seemingly random spot. Another major complain I've had with the game is that I've heard the term "padding" used alot by reviewers and I haven't really understood it as a huge problem until I played this game. One of the quests early in the game takes you though a compound brimming with personality and uniqueness and as soon as you finish that area, another quest becomes available where you pretty much start at the entrance to that same area amd clear it in the same exact way except now with a blue filter. I also hope you like running from quest giver to quest giver. On the plus side of game, the new skill trees actually drastically change how your character is played and does add a significant amount of value to replay or experimentation. The characters all habe their playstyles to chose from and it seems any person has a character that could match their preferred playstyles. As a footnote, because I know it won't effect everyone; if the humor in Borderlands 2 and 1 bordered on being too childish and dated then this game will push you over that edge. I feel the previous Borderlands teetered that line but still managed to be very funny and this game excells at "lol the random" humor that actually gets me to cringe often.

I feel kind of odd going against the grain here, and I want to remind you that this is a personal opinion and if you have fun with this game than I'm not trying to rob that from anybody, but I am still a heavy Soul Calibur fan and I was pretty dissapointed with this title. I will also warn that most of my comparisons will be to my favorite in the series, Soul Calibur 3, for the most part. Maybe it's because to prepare for the launch of this game, me and my friends played Soul Cal 3 for hours on straight, and when we excitedly switched to 6, I expected a faster and tighter experience. But I was frustrated by the unnecessary pacing issues of a regular fight. Your special soul attack plays a lengthy animation that I wouldn't normally get too annoyed by, but in the beginning you'll find most players use this anytime they get the option, this usually leads to a line of dialogue and pose from the character. It seems small but seeing this and hearing the same dialogue 3-5 times just from one player is irritating, neither player controls what's happening on the battlefield for a few seconds and it's something I just don't like in my fighters. At first I liked the new reverse edge mechanic (I can't quite recall the actual name for this move) but I ran into the same problem that i did with the previously mentioned point. It completely changes the pace of the combat and is a glorified rock, paper, scissors. I don't like any part of my fighters to be completely upto chance, I play these to see which one of us drunk fools has the best skills, not who can win this coin toss. I also was dissapointed by the lack of customization options for create a charavrer., But since this doesn't REALLY effect the game for most people I won't go too far into it, I will say that the last two games had a much more vast selection. My biggest frustration was the blatant lie that this game will have the biggest roster of any Soul Calibur game. 4 of which are locked behind a DLC wall. But as of now; no Lizardman/Aeos, no Setsuka, no Hilde, Zeei, no no Patroklos, no Pyrhha, no Dampierre. It just doesn't have the largest roster, not really even close either. At least not yet and definitely not in the base game.

This game is not a sequel to Doom 3, it is more of a sequel to Doom 2, if that makes sense. To me, Doom 3 was a survival horror game that was a slow moving experience and you barely scraping by the demons of hell and the biggest badasses of Mars. This was a disconnect for me and this is why I love Doom 2016, it fulfilled my fantasy for what Doom 1&2 were. You are not lone Marine that is struggling to fight back the demons of hell, you are an icon of rage and a symbol of terror to the demons. You are not slowly peeking around corners and carefully approaching combat scenarios, you play like an enraged, adrenaline junkie and the game rewards you for playing like that as well. The more you kill, the faster you move, the more aggressive you play the better off you are. Dooms pacing matches that of the player, making it clear from the get go what the protagonists intentions are with simple actions that don't clutter the gameplay. The weapons are varied and extremely fun to experiment with and I'm sure you will have a difficult time finding a favorite firearm among the armory of satisfying weapons, unless you are a double barrel purist and if that's you, I salute you. The game makes an amazing decision of implementing the mechanic that rewards you with ammo when you kill something with a chainsaw and rewards you health and armor if you brutally "glory" kill something, this makes the game a constant fast-paced blessing that I really can't get enough of. If you were dissapointed by Doom 3 and that's why you're hesitant about picking up this game, I want to assure you that this will not dissapoint.

I really love this game, I've had hours of fun with it and a new, fresh take on From Software formula. The game advances away from Dark Souls by having an intense focus on mobility with the grappling hook being a central point of the games experience. The grappling hook allows for a new flood of possibilities of how to engage enemies, this coupled with the more rewarding execution/backstabbing mechanic and stealth being an actual, and often encouraged but not necessary option. Another amazing point in the game for me was that the playable character uses a Katana primarily. This sounds like a biased mall-samurais preference but I enjoy this simply because it seems removing the wildly variable options for a primary weapon makes the feel of your attacks from the only weapon you have very tight, natural, and refined. Regardless of only having one primary weapon, the left hand is occupied by a customizable prosthetic arm that mixes up combat very effectively. I went into this game expecting prosthetic items like the shurikens, flame vent, and firecrackers to be as situational as they were in Dark Souls, but it seems any situation you encounter in Sekiro can be made a good bit easier by remembering your prosthetic. The game is not perfect however, at least not in my opinion. Exploration in this game is not nearly as rewarding as it was in previous Dark Souls games. You will never be rewarded with a new weapon, armor, or item that changes your multiplayer experience. If you're lucky , you'll find a new prosthetic part, but they are almost right in the main path. I frequently find myself in a beautiful side path thay requires careful maneuvering only to be rewarded wit h a seldom used sugar.