Throughout the past week, well, technically through break, I found myself looking into more things I haven’t picked up for the past two to three years. One of these is Fallout, with the second season just dropping in December, releasing episodes every Wednesday.
Whenever the first season came out, in 2024, I had heard about the franchise through my old friend. Victor. He grew up on the games, and he’s been begging me to play Fallout New Vegas. I downloaded it on my Xbox, and I played for a bit, till I encountered a roadblock in the gameplay, my younger self getting frustrated.
I let go of the game for a while, focusing on more school and other personal endeavors, such as writing and drawing. That was until I watched the second season with my dad, my interest sparking again.
Discouraged with FNV, I decided to download Fallout 4, one of the more recent games, on my computer. Slowly chipping away at the game, I play it every night, and I yearn to finish it.
The show? Good. I like it. I recommend it to anyone who likes postapocalyptic stories and well-written characters.
If you know me personally, you know that as a masochist, FromSoftware(Souls-Like) games are literally my favorite types of games. Bloodborne, Sekiro, Dark Souls 3, and Dark Souls 1 are all four out of my top five games. However, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco just released their newest title, Elden Ring. Which had been in the works since before Sekiro was released in 2019. It is now 2022, three years later, and Elden Ring is finally here. And it’s the best thing I’ve ever played. From minor detail to major detail this game is as close to perfect as anyone can get. (I play this on PC so I am aware of and have experienced the frame stutter when in fights, but they’re already fixing it and it really doesn’t take away from the experience at all).
Photo Credit: TechRadar
First of all, this game is absolutely gorgeous. Elden Ring is hands down the most artistically and graphically impressive game I’ve ever played. Sure there are a lot of games with technically better or more realistic graphics but, the care and detail put into making this world is absolutely unparalleled. As an open-world game, I was expecting it to be a little lazy with lots of walking around between one interesting location to the next like most large open-world games. I was wrong. This world is jam-packed with detail, easter eggs, items, side quests, characters, hidden levels, the list goes on. And every single one is great with immense detail, no enemy, no boss, no area feels unfinished. Every nook and cranny is filled with fun things to do. It is the single best open-world game I’ve ever played. And as a souls game, it is easily the best. It brings back my favorite part of Dark Souls one which is semi non-linear progression. Instead of only being able to go to one level and being stuck there if you’re under-leveled or skilled, you have the option to go do something else and explore the lush and lore-rich world that surrounds you.
Photo Credit: IGN
Secondly, Elden Ring takes everything good about the other games and packs them all into one. Weapon arts from DS3? Check. You can even change your weapon art on the fly. Powerstancing from DS2? Check. I am currently power-stancing two greatswords. A separate jump button from Sekiro? Check! 83 bosses??? CHECK. This game is jam-packed with content, it is everything FromSoftware learned from all the time they’ve been making games. And just like the masterpiece that is Bloodborne, it is a completely separate game from Dark Souls in every way. It doesn’t matter that the combat is technically similar, the environment, the feeling of playing Elden Ring, the satisfaction is all just on a different level from their previous games. It is a culmination of all of their previous masterpieces. If there’s any game that defines the spirit and the artistic value of gaming, especially RPGs and Open World games, it’s Elden Ring. I adore this game.
Plus it has the two best NPC’s ever in gaming, Pot man and Wolfman. Buy it right now
There’s a lot of different sides to me. There’s the Eagle-fanatic side that just loves the NFL and his Eagles. There’s the Honey Badger, my deranged, athlete side who simply has no regard for his own or anyone else’s well being. That side is also known as my “power trip”. And then, there’s my nerd side.
I am a bit of a nerd. I am an absolute Star Wars addict. I could look at a picture of a character, and probably give you a solid name and specific event that occurred in that character’s theatrical life.
But, as into Star Wars as I am, I’m a huge video game freak. My favorite franchise is the Super Smash Brothers series made famous by those awesome people at Nintendo. But there’s always been a very close second.
That would be the Nintendo-produced Pokemon franchise. Everyone knows about Pikachu, but I know about the other 600. It’s a whole world that I just love to immerse myself in from time to time. In fact, over the weekend, I went out and purchased one of the newest installments in the franchise, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.
I just realized how lame that actually sounds, but the game is once again very entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable.
By now, a lot of hardcore gamers have heard of the popular series Bioshock. Just recently, the third installment, titled Bioshock Infinite was released.
It is already being called the Game of the Year. That includes its competitor, Grand Theft Auto 5, which is due out later this year.
I think its premature to call anything the game of the year when its only April. We still have 9 more months before we pick a winner. But, let’s look at how popular Bioshock has been.
Bioshock was marketed as a horror/action/adventure game, and is well worth those labels. Up until recently, however, I had zero interest in the Bioshock series. When I was younger, about 3 years ago maybe, I stayed over a friend’s house, and he played Bioshock at 2 in the morning. I was petrified and swore that I would one day conquer the game. Recently, the Apple Mac App store released an app version of the first Bioshock game. I waited for a sale to cut down the 30 dollar price (I bought mine for 10 bucks) and started playing.
I haven’t finished yet.
I am in awe. I played until 3 AM the other day, and thank god it was Friday night. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was a Tuesday night. I couldn’t put the game away. It’s intensity is completely unmatched.
Big Daddies are my favorite characters.
This picture should explain just about everything.
Yes, he’s that large thing. He goes completely psychotic is you so much as breathe the wrong way. See that little girl next to him, she’s the little sister. If you touch her EVER, you’re going to die. That drill for a hand is not for show.
Teens around my age and time, who are major video gamers, will always recognize the numbers “117.” Yes. I know…awesome. For those who don’t know, the numbers refer to the beloved alien killer “Master Chief” of the Halo series. The Character is so world-wide known. You might even call him a super star. And like all super stars he has to have a wax statue of himself in the famous Madam Tussauds Wax museum. The statue stands at 7.2 feet tall and weights about 275 Lbs. The Chief took more than 800 hours to be immortalized as wax.
It was great seeing one of my childhood heroes face to face. For a second, it took me back to when I was 13 again.
should explain just about everything.
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