"Detroit: Become Human" Review

So finally a proper article, more or less. My wife pushed me into FINALLY getting a PS4 and with it I was finally able to play my previously purchased copy of "Detroit: Become Human". Quantic Dreams as the studio is called has produced "Heavy Rain" and "Beyond Two Souls" both fairly decent hits in their time (with "Beyond Two Souls" boasting the acting talents of Wilem Defoe & Ellen Page) but these games have more or less put the choose your own adventure style of gaming in a Triple-A market, giving players the feeling that they're not exactly playing a game, they're more or less controlling a movie. I've played "Heavy Rain" and despite having issues with it (issues I'll get into when I discuss spoilers for "Detroit") the game was decent. "Detroit: Become Human" is what "Heavy Rain" was trying to be, therefore it's the superior of the two and undeniably the better game. But is "Detroit: Become Human" good? The short answer is yes.

Overall, I give the game a 7/10, it has a great cast, a fairly interesting (although predictable) story, the decisions actually matter and the Flow Chart feature helps you see what could have been without showing you EXACTLY what could have happened. I enjoyed this game but like "Heavy Rain" I won't be replaying it anytime soon, I might replay a few chapters here and there but diving in the game again, no. I won't bother discussing the obvious parallels it has with real-world events and I won't bother discussing the plot at length, it's basically androids become self-aware. The game misses a few opportunities to really consider the impact of where the story could go, and again I think it's become the game is bogged down in real-world parallels but overall it was a decent experience. 7/10 would recommend BUT ONLY if you enjoyed "Heavy Rain". Now on to Spoilers.

Horror & Capability

For the longest time, I've been thinking quite a bit about horror movies and horror as a genre entirely. I've made videos about my ideas of what horror movies really are, they're not about what they're about there more about the idea of what they're about. As an example, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" isn't about some chainsaw wielding nutcase ready to hack you and your friends up, it's actually about being on the outside of an inside joke, the fear of not knowing. Everyone in "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" was aware they were leading those guys to their doom EXCEPT for the main characters. That's what I mean; "Halloween" wasn't about a killer, it's about an unstoppable, unreasonable force. But I've recently found myself returning to more Lovecraftian notions of horror and really re-thinking what makes horror horror and what exactly makes it scary and I've discovered it comes down to one factor, what is that factor? Find out after the break!

The Last Of Us Part II: The Story That Could Be

So incase you live under a rock or could careless about the latest video game news, Naughty Dog's 2013 MASSIVE hit game "The Last Of Us" is getting a sequel. This is news to me as I thought I wasn't going to happen and this is news to everyone else since they were waiting for it. However, while I'm excited for the sequel in a small dose (after all I refuse to purchase a PS4 for one game) my apprehension in regards to "The Last Of Us part II" is the return of Joel & Ellie as main characters. Why? Here's why.

Did 2K Sell Us The Same Game ?

I'm a HUGE wrestling gamer. I loved wrestling games ever since the days of "WWF: Warzone" (so you know I got cred). The main reason why was because of Create A Wrestler Mode. A function of the game where you get to create your own wrestler with their own moves, entrances and so on. Then "WWF: Attitude" upped the ante in allowing you to create an arena and create a PPV and introduced a Career Mode. Now I was a Nintendo64 for guy so unfortunately I never got to play any of the SMACKDOWN series for Playstation that I hear were actually REALLY good, but when I gotta Playstation 2 "SMACKDOWN!: Shut Your Mouth" & "SMACKDOWN: Here Comes The Pain" were my go to games and I also did partake of the awesomeness that was "WrestleMania 2000" & "WWF: No Mercy". Then the "SMACKDOWN vs. Raw" series came out and more creative ability came with it. I gotta PS3 VERY late in the game so my last wrestling game purchase was "WWE2K14" and at long last I got what I've finally been missing in wrestling games all my life, the ability to add custom music. With, the ability to create a story, a title, an arena, a whole show and 100 create a wrestler slots I had finally gotten everything I had ever wanted in a wrestling game...but alas, my victory was a hollow one, here's why after the break;

Video Games Woes

As the Christmas season has passed and 2016 is rapidly claiming life after life (Rest in Peace Carrie Fisher, Garry Shandling & George Michael) thus making the being that is The Keith Richards stronger, I figured I'd write about a topic I don't talk about frequently and that's video games. With my recent purchase of "WWE2K17" for the PS3 (which is another article all together, believe me), I've become faced with a dilemma that's albeit easy to solve but one that requires some thinking on my part. So I figured, why not make an article out of it. Here we go;

DLCs & Gaming And Why They Suck

Seems like today was article writing day for me as I have at least 3 articles in the chamber and a 4th coming tomorrow (the "Pretty Little Liars" review). That being said, while my next 2 articles are going to be rather scathing and grumpy, I've decided that to start thing off with a rather lighter article. This one having to do with video games and more specifically DLCs. I've been saying it for awhile that DLCs sucks (and I'm certain no one will disagree with me, after all, who likes spending money?), but I'm going to explain exactly WHY they suck and what can be done about it. So let's get to it;

A Tale Of 3 Games

So here's something I don't do very often but should and that's talk about video games. As I've said before, I'm an extremely limited gamer and as such I don't play video games very often, unless they're wrestling games (the last one I purchased was "WWE2K14" and I have no intentions of playing "2K15" as I have no plan to purchase a PS4) and while I have played and GREATLY enjoyed "The Last Of Us", it's really not my style of gaming. But despite my limitations, I do consider myself a gamer, although not a hardcore, you'll never see me having Wolf Blitzer sessions over the latest patches and graphics of the new releases on PS4, but I do appreciate a good game. A few years back a decided to dip my finger in the recently booming indie gaming market due to my increasing curiosity of Steam and a particular game that caught my interest. I've wanted to write about this game for awhile but now finally premits me the opportunity to do so. I'm going to talk about 3 games actually, and while these games are EXTREMELY similar in style, execution and limited mechanics, only one of them excels at it while the other two utterly fail. Those games are as followed, "Dear Esther", "Gone Home" & "The Stanley Parable".

Before I discuss the games proper, let me say that by all conventional standards these are not games. There's no reward system (winning or losing), there are no levels to be beat, no bosses to battle and no series of objectives to be completed. There essentially is no way to fail at playing these games unless the key to move forward is broken. These games basically amount to Walking Simulators, where your interaction with the world in the games are limited to, picking up objects and putting them down, pressing a button, turning on and off a flashlight and simply walking forward. All 3 of these games are done in first person. These games don't take any real cognitive effort to complete and offer no challenge to anyone who would consider themselves a hardcore gamer. However, despite having the same limitations and a similar set up, "The Stanley Parable" manages to be not only incredibly fun and hilarious but it manages to do what "Dear Esther" and "Gone Home" could not do. So what's so great about "The Stanely Parable" ? Before I answer that, let me explain what's so bad about "Dear Esther" and "Gone Home". FYI:

SPOILERS FOR THESE GAMES ABOUND! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Why "Mortal Kombat" Is The Greatest Fighting Game Ever

There are VERY few things I can speak about authoritatively (Dragonball Z, DC Comics, Quentin Tarantino movies, Star Wars and a few other things) but when it comes to "Mortal Kombat", I'm that guy you NEED to talk to. I remember when I first saw "Mortal Kombat" when my Uncle bought a Sega Genesis and we (my brother and I) were urged NOT play it, out of fear of us becoming wanton violent criminals, of course, that didn't happen. What DID happen was I gained a new found respect for storytelling, graphics and the over all coolness of grandiose characters. So in this article, I'm going to explain why "Mortal Kombat" is quite possibly the GREATEST FIGHTING GAME EVER!

Wrestling Games Moving Forward...

So if I haven't made it clear in videos and amy previous "Pretty Little Liars" review, I am a HUGE wrestling game fan, they're practically the only games I play on a consistent bases. Pathetic, yes, I know, but to each their own and all that. Anyways, I recently purchased a PS3 and the first game I brought was none other than "WWE2K14". Now I understand "WWE2K15" will be coming out later this year, but I imagine it's an extremely short amount of time to fix the multitude of problems with the WWE games as it stands now. So in this article, I'll be listing those problems and offering solutions on how to solve them. So let's dive in;