Nate Viramontes

At PlayStation Showcase Sony announced the official price of both it’s new PlayStation Consoles. The PlayStation 5 with a the disc tray will be priced at $499 while the all digital PlayStation 5 will be  $399. These console will release November 12th  and featuring Demon’s Soul Remaster and Spider-Man: Miles Morales as two of it’s launch titles with the console. With Sony matching Microsoft price tag this now becomes a fight about what games are on the console along with the specs.

Here you can see some of difference that four consoles have and honestly there aren’t that many. Memory being the thing that Series X has over it with a 1 TB hard drive.  This will be a war of games more then anything else and right Sony really made a point to show us what they are bringing to the next generation. Only time will tell who comes out on top. For now PlayStation 5 pre-orders are already starting in most retailers.

Microsoft just announced the price tag and launch date for not only the Xbox Series X but also a new Xbox as well. I can confirm that Xbox Series X will be officially be $499 and release on November 10th of this year. If you are looking to pre-order this new hardware you can starting doing so on September 22nd.

The new Xbox that was announced as well by Microsoft is simply called Series S and is $299 and is an all digital console which means no disc trays for this version of console. This is also a no 4K native Xbox for those of us who don’t have a 4K TV/Monitor.

Now obviously these console are expensive so Microsoft is also going to be doing payment plan with both of these Xbox consoles. Series X will have a monthly payment of $35 a month while Series S will have $25 payment.   Making this to me an even easier console to get behind.

But wait there’s more EA Play EA own game pass subscription is now merging it’s pass with the game pass for Ultimate members. You will now have access to all of the games EA has on their subscription for free if your already a Ultimate Game Pass member.  That will be following the sometimes this holiday as well. It looks likes it a great time to be an Xbox owner.

Currently Playing: Marvel’s The Avengers

Marvel’s The Avengers had to be one of the most polarizing games I have played all year, on one have you have a clearly unfinished game but on the other hand, you have a really fun action game with the worlds greatest heroes. I love Marvel and have wanted this game since the MCU first started but it has so many problems from glitches that re-lock skins to straight-up crashes. This is truly a tale of two cities when it comes to this game because there are two great games mesh together in a way it doesn’t need to be.

Will start with the campaign for this game I love every character in this game the voice cast truly has some of the most legendary voice actors in gaming. From Troy Baker to Laura Bailey they are all great and capture a whole new side to these heroes. As someone who comes from reading the comics, I can really see the differences from the MCU counterparts that they are getting compared to.

This leads me to the two not as well know voice actors Jeff Schine who plays Captain America. He brings that great level of righteousness to the character that I love. Once you see Cap I felt like I was seeing an old friend who you wanted to follow into battle. Now the other voice actress who is a lot newer to the scene is Sandra Saad who plays Kamala Khan AKA Ms.Marvel and oh my god she is the very heart and soul of this game.

I was sold on Kamala as soon as the game opened up with her and her Abu (Father). She reacts to meeting The Avengers and being a huge fan of them the exact way I would have. She was so relatable in a way to me that not even Peter Parker in the MCU felt like. She is this story’s main character and I felt makes the whole rest of the cast that much better as characters because we get to see a different side of them from what we are used to. One of my favorite interactions is between her and Tony Stark when she is feeling awkward in her costume. He didn’t make fun of her he was there for her like a big brother and you really feel she is just as excited to be there with The Avengers as I was.

Overall, the story first two acts are much stronger then it’s third where you can clearly tell they cut stuff out. For example, Dr. Tarleton just all of a sudden becomes M.O.D.O.K. without really any reason for the name change at all. It felt like there is so much missing in the third act I felt like that was because this is a game as a service and maybe was getting rushed out because other unforeseen issues.

The last thing that made me disappointed beyond all belief is that there is no back up saves files so once you beat the story your done and can never play it again unless you want to delete your current save and lose all of your multiplayer progress as well. It’s disappointing and I hope Crystal Dynamic will add a fix to that part soon.

This leads me to the other side of this game Avengers Initiative while you can tell this is clearly the stronger side of the game the first problem is they open up all of these other currencies and modes without any indication as to what they do or how they work. Now I have no problem not being handheld by any game I feel here we really needed to know what we are supposed to be doing with all of the useless items we are getting.

On top of that be ready for a grind if you are not a grind type of player then this side of the game might not be for you to play at all. This is the first game as a service style game I have played that I am having fun playing. It just sucks that we have to figure out what we are doing all on our own without any help from the game at all.

The gameplay itself is amazing everything plays in a way that makes sense to me my favorite being Iron Man. Everyone has so many options on how to make a build that will work for whatever mode your playing in. While this game is a 4-player co-op game with all the bugs in this game I am having much more fun just playing on my own.

Speaking of bugs this game has more then I have seen in a launch title in a long time. I’ve fallen through the floor, lost one of my favorite skins (Still haven’t gotten it back either), crashed my whole Xbox One S, and had massive framerate drops. The most annoying of these was losing a skin all you can do if this happens is wait for a patch which according to the devs is coming very soon. It amazes me the devs let this game come out this broken at all when it clearly shouldn’t have.

From a great story to a bug filled multiplayer this game is a combination of fun and pure frustration. There is a truly great game within this game and I am hoping that in a year when I take another look at this I hope I can give it a higher score. Because I truly can’t put the game down I love playing as The Avengers they are all fun and unique in their own ways. It was clear this game needed at least six more months of polishing and you might have had a much more incredible game. For now, I am giving this game a 7/10 for an amazing story that is stuck in an unfinished game as a service style of game. I highly recommend playing this game in like six months it will be much more smoothed out hopefully by then. But only time will tell.

Currently Playing: Marvel’s The Avengers

At the most recent War table Stream for Marvel’s The Avengers the dev team announced a new hero for the game. This new hero is Kate Bishop she is another Hawkeye and from I can tell this is sort of like an echo fighter from Super Smash Bros. We know Clint Barton is already confirmed to be playable so this is an interesting movie by Sqaure Enix. It could even mean heroes like War Machine could be an echo for Iron Man. Giving us in theory more heroes! The stream also paid tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. It also appears that they said Black Panther will be in the game as well by showing us his symbol, but this seems more like speculation then confirmation. On that note here is the trailer for our first echo hero Kate Bishop.

343 Industries came out and said they are unfortunately delaying Halo Infinite until sometime in 2021. The reason being according to the studio because of COVID-19 related complications and to give the team more time to work on the game. All in all the announcement surprises no one after a ton of backlash from the Xbox Conference a few weeks ago.

Where Halo Infinite opened up the conference with some awesome gameplay but lackluster graphics for a game that was supposed to be running on Xbox Series X. While I personally thought the graphics worked more on my nostalgia for Halo over the power of Series X. I understand why the game is being delayed and I feel as though we may see even more delays at some point soon because due to COVID-19.

However, this announcement was also followed later by Microsoft announcing that Xbox Series X will be launching in November of this year. I think just from a marketing and sales standpoint this is a horrible idea, Microsoft just lost it’s biggest launch title for the new console. While PS5 still has games like Spider-man: Miles Morales which looks like a great game and excellent launch title, due later this year. I feel that the series X should be delayed along with its flagship game due to the fact we have no idea when Halo Infinite is coming out now. This could seriously damage the sales of the console.

If I had to guess I would hope February- March 2021, which if that’s the case hopefully Series X won’t take to much of a sales drop against the PS5 Launch which is still unknown. As someone who plays a lot more of his Xbox then his Playstation I am even more inclined to get the PS5 now without Halo Infinite coming out anytime soon. Only time will tell how this affects sales on Series X if at all.

Currently Playing: Halo Wars 2

Monday, August 3rd Square Enix announced that their version of Spider-man would be introduced into Marvel’s The Avengers sometime in 2021 exclusively to PlayStation 4. Why is this such a big problem? Well, the short answer is this means Xbox players of the game are already missing out on content for a game that isn’t even out yet. Here is the issue at hand in a game like The Avengers Square Enix just took one the biggest heroes Marvel has and locked him to one side of the consoles.

Now, I assume a lot of us are not surprised by this since Marvel’s Spider-man is already an exclusive title to PS4. I am not that surprised either, to be honest with you. Then I got to thinking Spider-man was still allowed to be in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 which guess what is not even on the PlayStation shocking I know. The question becomes why doesn’t Square work out a similar deal for their game.

You are basically going funnel a lot more players to the PlayStation version of the game and possibly lose a lot of money from the Xbox players. This is all just a theory, perhaps a character like Spider-man could be more of a timed exclusive that way Sony still gets their boost and sales and those of us who want to play him on Xbox just have to wait a little while.

A bigger argument can be said that a game like this needs to be cross-play in order to survive. From a lot of recent footage, the game looks like a Destiny style gear centered game. In no way is this a bad thing it just is having that ability to be cross-play would be so beneficial to all gamers and even sales. However, they have stated on their war table live streams that they are more focused on cross generation then cross play.

Microsoft is already showing that the next generation will be a lot different from what we are used to. With there focus being on playability over the generations vs exclusivity. So it is concerning to see a game like The Avengers still using exclusivity when it comes to characters. Only time will tell if this affects the sales of the game, I don’t honestly think it will though.

I think those of us who want to play the game will still play the game, while it also no secret I am a huge Spider-man fan I am looking at the game as a whole and feel that there is a ton of heroes still worth playing even if he isn’t around on Xbox. I am not sure why exactly Square Enix is going this route with the game, maybe in the new generation the game will become cross-play, maybe we will get Spider-man to play on Xbox. Only time will tell.

For now, Marvel’s The Avengers is set for September 4th release date with the Beta happening on PS4 August 7th and Xbox August 14th.

Currently Playing: Halo 4

Ghost of Tsushima is some of the most fun I have in a game in a very long time. It was pure fun every minute and had one of the most beautiful open worlds I have ever seen. Every frame, voice line, slice of your katana, and duel was put together with so much love and care by Sucker Punch. The story of Jin Sakai is great and is honestly just the type of game I was looking to play after a game like The Last of Us part 2.

The story goes like this you are Lord Jin Sakai a samurai who is nearly killed during the opening of the game when Mongols first arrive on the shores of Tshuimia. Now after Khatun khan grandson of Genghis Khan takes your uncle hostage you must learn new methods of fighting to take down the Mongols, save your uncle, and more importantly save Tsushima. You must become The Ghost.

Now I don’t want to say any more about the story because it is such a wonderful story to be a part of. Jin Sakai is one of my favorite new protagonists in the last few years. He has great dry humor, who also happens to be a truly strong warrior, and you can truly see why so many people on the island love and respect him. Not to mention the great supporting cast you have from Yuna to Norio a warrior monk this game has a small but well-acted cast.

Each actor puts so much heart and soul into their performances that when you get to a cutscene I am just as invested in each of these characters’ stories as I am Jin Sakai’s story. You get to play these separate mission the allow you to get to know each of these characters on a deeper level. I think one of the characters I enjoyed watching grow most was Kenji a con artist who takes a liking to Jin.

The game has so much you can do as well from side quest to quest that give you new fighting styles like setting your katana on fire! Which had to be some of the most fun I had in the game. The stealth is on point as well feeling a lot like classic Assassin Creed that rewards you for being quick on your feet and quietly taking as many guards as you can.

The world Tshushima is just fun to live in I never really wanted to stop playing the game I would always be ready to stop playing then find a shrine, fox den, write a haiku, or follow a golden bird and want to just keep going. Then spread across the world there all kinds of Mongol’s holding key locations for you to take down and while this is something that exists in most open-world games it still felt fresh.

The music itself is beautiful Jin can even play the flute on the flick of a button. Which made for some great picture in photo mode as well. Photo mode was so much fun to use in this game being able to activate by pressing right on the d pad at anytime.

The greatest thing this game has to offer is the duels which act as boss fights and you are only allowed your katana. These fights require the most focus and watching your opponent’s movements as they attack you. I truly had some hard fights while doing these duels but the thing was I never felt like I was going to not be able to beat a duel every time I retried the fight I got a little closer and memorized that much more of my opponents fighting style. Each time there was a duel it felt truly like watching an old samurai movie.

This game on so many levels is perfect from a fun story of honor and duty to amazing action, and an breath taking open world. I loved every second of this game and never wanted to stop exploring Tshushima and become The Ghost. I never even ran into any bugs Sucker Punch made this game with so much love and was worth the long wait for it to come out. While also proving once and for all that PlayStation line of exclusives titles are some of the most amazing games of any generation. I give Ghost of Tsushima a 10/10 for being one of the most incredible games I have played in years.

Currently Playing: Ghost of Tshusima