Bioshock 2: Minerva’s Den

bs2 minervas den

I don’t really play many DLCs but if it’s a game I really love, I go all out. Minerva’s Den is a side story told alongside Delta’s story in Bioshock 2. We play as a Big Daddy named Sigma set off to venture into Minerva’s Den, the computer heart of Rapture. You’re sent by a man named Porter to search for the Thinker, which is said to be able to predict everything. It’s protected by the co-creator, Reed Wahl who’s gone mad from splicing…

I have to say there is some really cool new stuff in the levels. I love the Gravity Well plasmid, which has a awesome final form that can decimate a group of enemies at one. The addition of the ion laser is really nice too which is cost efficient when it comes to ammo and does quite a bit of damage. The Lancer Big Daddies are tough and filled me with dread each time I fought them. The story has a good twist at the end and its a pretty sad story. The only drawback is that it isn’t very long and there’s a lot of searching that can get pretty tedious. In the end, If you are craving more Bioshock this is a fun bite sized entry. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bioshock 2

bs 2 A great lesson in life is just because that its better to have small flaws than fix them and break perfection. While Bioshock is one of my all time favorite games, Bioshock 2 had a lot to live up to. Let’s descend into Rapture again..

After the fall of Ryan and Atlas, a new force took over by means of Sophia Lamb’s “Family”, turning the Splicers and down-trotted of Rapture into a cult. Before Rapture’s decline under Ryan, Lamb had her exceptional daughter turned into a Little Sister, protected by Delta, one of the first Big Daddies. Lamb, using a plasmid to control him, makes Delta seemingly kill himself so she can experiment on her daughter more, trying to make her the messiah of the Family. 1968, Delta is woken up again from a coma by Tenebuam, feeling his Little Sister Eleanor call out to him. Can Delta save Eleanor from the clutches of her mother?

There are some tiny improvements to Bioshock 2 but it doesn’t hold a candle to the first. The Story, while fine, feels copy and paste in certain areas; what hurts it is the fact that the choices you make don’t carry the same weight at the end as they do in the first. Although the weapons themselves are bigger, they don’t seem to do the damage they did in the first game either. I do like the fact you can use melee attacks with every weapon and the drill does some heavy damage later. While most of the plasmids and gene tonics are carried over from the first game, there are new enemies including the badass Big Sisters who were a great addition to the series. The characters are pretty good. The graphics are a huge upgrade but I can’t help but notice that they try too hard at times to be creepy with the setting. It was cool to live as a Big Daddy and gather Adam with the Little Sisters but like much of the game itself, it does get stale. Things like hacking, photographing enemies, and tonic storage are really simplified  combined with much more straight forward missions makes the game lose some charm. In the end, Bioshock 2 is a good game that could have been great but still worth trying if you loved the first. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ready or Not trailer 1

I feel in love with this trailer. I love the old time feel in the aesthetic and the idea is pretty cleaver. It looks like The Purge mixed with Clue. I like that there’s a fair amount of dark humor and it’s not taking itself overly seriously. I’m pretty psyched it’s coming out in the next few months and I can’t wait to see it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

E3 Blair Witch trailer

Of all the horror movies to make a game out of, I can’t say I imagined Blair Witch would be the horror series to get a game of it’s own. With the exception of Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows , which I actually liked, the found footage films were never my thing. Nevertheless it looks pretty decent, like a slightly creepier version of Slender-man. In VR this could be kinda cool and I’m intrigued how it will turn out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bioshock

bioshock

There are few games I’d ever give a 10 out of 10 in life: Batman: Arkham Asylum , Red Dead Redemption , and Mass Effect 2 to name a few. Bioshock is one of them. I’ve played the game through half a dozen times over two console generations and I’m still finding new things in the desolate, leaky city of Rapture.

We play as Jack who is flying over the mid Atlantic in the year 1960. His plane crashes and he finds himself swimming to a lighthouse, finding only a pod that takes him to the underwater metropolis that is Rapture, where the science and art aren’t hindered by government or god. On the outside Rapture is gorgeous and a true sight to behold. Inside is decadent madness. Addicts called Splicers run free, addicted to the freedom to rewrite there genetic codes with Adam and plasmids. Mutated little girls and there hauntingly armored suit protectors, the Little Sisters and Big Daddies, extract Adam out of the corpses that litter the streets. Rapture was founded and run by Andrew Ryan, a visionary and business tycoon who doesn’t want Jack to leave, especially when aided by Atlas. Would ya kindly remember ” a man chooses and a slave obeys”

Bioshock is more than a FPS game. Besides guns, you get to partake in various plasmids and gene tonics, giving you a cool mix of powers and buffs. The detail in your skin when you change plasmids is one of my favorite parts of the game. The world is fascinating and creepy, hearing the rambling of the Splicers and the groans and thunderous footsteps of the Big Daddies. The characters are well done and the the story is a fantastic piece of smart science fiction. The graphics are pretty good on Ps4. There are a few fetch quests that are a pain the ass and there’s a hell of a difficulty spike after easy mode so I recommend going through on easy for collectibles. The DLC, besides a fun horde mode, also has a pretty interesting mode where you have to use your brain to traverse the levels. In the end, Bioshock is a classic that I can’t  recommend more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Carrion Game-play: E3 2019

I have to thank our mutual friend, Autobot for this one. He is a weird horror game where we play as amorphous beast whose sole purpose is to devour living people and grow. I really like the art style and it’s surprisingly gory. It’s a simple premise that follows through and I can say I’d happily try it out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil 5 (PS4)

Originally released on PlayStation 3 with somewhat mixed reviews, my daughter recently got into Resident Evil 2 Remake and wanted to play the rest, so we decided to co-op Resident Evil 5. While graphically it isn’t bad and the controls hold up well, the split screen itself is atrocious. They don’t even use the entire screen, its just more or less 2 small squares of the screen, one for each player.

Aside from that, the AI is still pretty damn horrible as well to be honest. In single player Sheva is still more or less useless and will waste ammo on dead bodies. The story is also kind of convoluted, but that is pretty typical for the series. The game is fun in multiplayer tho, and I am having a blast with my daughter, but the game still leaves much to be desired and did not age very well for a lot of reasons. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Doctor Sleep trailer

This has made me wonder for a while how a squeal to The Shining was going to go. I’m happy to say this is in fact the sequel to Kubrick’s legendary film and I’m pretty excited. Dr Sleep follows the story of grown Danny Torrance dealing with a new threat and the old demons of his childhood. I’m glad to say it looks like the recent revival of awesome King based movies continues. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ghostwire Tokyo, Don’t Fear the Unknown, Attack It.

 

There isn’t much known about this new IP from Bethesda and while there isn’t much known about it, it doe’s seem rather interesting and oddly beautiful. The premise is simple. One day, people disappear, leaving nothing but their cloths behind. After this a mysterious and presumably evil force shows up. Your job is to fight that force, and discover the truth about what has happened.

It seems to be pretty action oriented to me but really it is far to soon to tell, tho it is thought to be a new horror game. This one is worth keeping an eye on. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Doom Eternal Trailer E3 2019

I can’t say I feel the hype for E3 this year as I have before, but I can tell you I’m pumped as hell for Doom: Eternal after seeing the story trailer. I love that beside slaying the armies of hell, we’ll also be clashing against the might of heaven as well which opens a lot of new doors for the series. Doom: Eternal is definitely going on my pre-order list. May the gaming gods bring you glory.