Nate Viramontes

Thursday December 12th is the Video Game awards and this article is the list of all the nominees for the the award show. The show starts at 5:00 P.M. Pacific standard time.  With that being said here all the of nominees.

Currently Playing: My Friend Pedro

Game of The Year
Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai-Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Game Direction
Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom/Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)

Best Narrative
A Plague Tale: Innocence (Asobo/Focus Home)
Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian/Private Division)

Best Art Direction
Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Grezzo/Nintendo)

Best Score/Music
Cadence of Hyrule (Brace Yourself Games/Nintendo)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)
Kingdom Hearts III (Square Enix)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)

Best Audio Design
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Control (Remedy/505)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Resident Evil 2 (Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision)

Best Performance
Ashly Burch as Parvati Holcomb, The Outer Worlds
Courtney Hope as Jesse Faden, Control
Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz, Gears 5
Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff, Death Stranding
Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling, Control
Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, Death Stranding

Games for Impact
Concrete Genie (Pixelopus/SIE)
Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
Kind Words (Popcannibal)
Life is Strange 2 (Dontnod/Square Enix)
Sea of Solitude (Jo-Mei Games/EA)

Best Ongoing Game
Apex Legends (Respawn)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best Independent Game
Baba Is You (Hempuli)
Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
Katana ZERO (Askiisoft/Devoler)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)
Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)

Best Mobile Game
Call of Duty: Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
GRINDSTONE (Capybara Games)
Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna)
Sky: Children of Light (Thatgamecompany)
What the Golf? (Tribland)

Best Community Support
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)

Best VR/AR Game
Asgard’s Wrath (Sanzaru Games/Oculus Studios)
Blood & Truth (SIE London Studio/SIE)
Beat Saber (Beat Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Trover Saves the Universe (Squanch Games)

Best Action Game
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Astral Chain (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom/Capcom)
Gears 5 (The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Metro Exodus (4A Games/Deep Silver)

The new Star Wars Jedi game came out last Friday as of writing this and after completing it late last night I can tell you this game is truly amazing. It has so many classic mechanics within this amazing game. The game to me is my game of the year even though it wasn’t nominated for game of the year at the game awards this year.

Everything this game offers feels fresh to me in a world of open-world games that all act similar, this game is truly something fresh. I wouldn’t call this game an open world at all. It is more of a classic legend of Zelda sandbox-style game pack full of cool things to find and fight.

This game acts like a legend of Zelda game in its dungeons, fights like a Dark Souls, and even has the map and layout of a Metroid game. On top of all of that, it’s made by Respawn not EA and tells a truly original story in the Star Wars universe. You play as Cal Kestus a padawan survivor of order 66.

Your goal to bring back the Jedi order through the use of a Jedi Holocron that has a list of force-sensitive kids. You go from planet to planet looking for clues of how to open a vault that holds the Holocron. Cal is such an amazing character who feels like a young man truly conflicted by his past and you can see his struggle to remain in the light side as he fights the Inquisitor. A group of dark side force users in service of Darth Vader to find any remaining Jedi and eliminate them.

The main villain is the Second Sister whose origins get explored in this game but she has actually been seen in Star Wars Rebels along with her fellow inquisitors. This game has so many awesome nods to the main movies as well as the show and even has the voice actor of the Clones Troopers himself back to voice some characters as well.

The story is the most fun I have had with a Star Wars game in years it brings me back to when Lucasfilms made Star Wars game Instead of EA. The lightsaber combat and forces powers are a little simple but it makes it so much better because you really get to feel the weight of fighting with a lightsaber.

Every swing has a lot of power behind it and being able to push, pull, and slowdown is great in combat some of the bosses in this game are insanely hard to but not impossible as I kept dying and dying I never felt like I was losing because I was learning the bosses motions like you would in a Dark Souls game. In a lot of ways, the message of its ok to fail the game carries in its story actually rings true in its gameplay as well.

Everything this game has to offer makes it not only my favorite game of the year but one of my favorite games of all time. I personally feel like this has a great chance of being game of the year. With beautiful worlds, great gameplay, and a story that is truly great this is one of the best Star Wars games of all time.

Currently Playing: After Party

Hideo Kojima’s first outing without the rest of Konami was bound to be an amazing adventure. With this game I can say so far that is correct I love this game but the keyword here is BUT the game is not what I expected at all. This game boils down to you the player playing Sam Porter Bridges played by Norman Reedus trying to reconnect all of America in the post-apocalyptic world.

The world itself is so full of mystery and has all of the feelings of a Kojima type of storytelling in the first hour in and Half I probably only play about 20-30 minutes of the game while I was watching cut scene to cut scene. Which all of these cut scenes are wonderfully well done and fun to watch. The game has a hard-Sci-Fi setting that I’m still trying to figure out myself. My best advice when approaching the story is to hold on to the fact that you are trying to reconnect all of America.

This game in some places feels like Kingdom Hearts style of insanely confusing storytelling. In no way am I saying this is bad just prepare yourself to be confused 90% of the time. That being said when I got to the gameplay I found it to be fun and refreshing while some may see it as a glorified walking sim I truly think this is not only one of the games strongest points but can be quite fun especially when BT a weird time ghost ( again I’m not too sure on the story yet ) pop in your route to the next City.

These sections feel intense and make you really have to plan your route ahead so you don’t get killed. Which planning your route is the way of the game every delivery you make you’re the one who plans the route and picks the best gear for the delivery. The game at times feels like an action-adventure game especially when you are going stealth around all kinds of enemies and taking them down one by one. Again, I have to make this clear this game is more about the journey than the destination and is one of those games that will not be for everyone and is very artsy.

Kinda funny games reviewed this game as well and talked about the first 3 chapters that make it or break it for all players. Which you’ll either be in love with the story and characters or hate the games by chapter 3. I happen to agree the first 3 chapters feel like they are setting you up for this 40 plus hour game and you are really getting your grip on all the mechanics and story. So, if you make it past chapter 3 then you’re most likely in it for the long haul.

Death Stranding is a very polarizing game that I think is worth a try if you love artistic story-driven games over a lot of combat. The game came out on November 8th and so far, has been reviewed all over the place. If you want to check this game out then grab your PS4 get ready to make some deliveries gamers.

Currently Playing: Death Stranding

The new Modern Warfare came out last Friday as of writing this article and oh boy is it a true return to form. While a lot of fans have hated a lot of the other more recent entry into Call of Duty especially Infinite Warfare. This game hits the ground running with back to basics almost.

The story is incredibly well done while being a little short I already started playing through it again. It is so much darker and then any other campaign from Call of Duty. Which they annoyingly remind every time you click to play the campaign. My favorite level so far has to be “Clean House” where you and Captain Price lead a team of S.A.S. members up a building looking for a person of interest.

This level is so unique to me because you are going room to sweeping and clearly and making sure to only shoot the right people. The level has innocent people all around you and it’s up to you to determine who is friend and foe in honestly a split-second reaction. Which got my heartbeat going faster each of these rooms as you head up could hold more enemies while at the same time you hear people on the next floor up moving around.

Seriously, if you are like a lot of people who don’t play the campaign, I recommend playing this one because it has to be one of the best stories they have had in years. And it’s also great to have Captain Price back at the helm again as well.

Now with that, it’s the main event time the Multiplayer. Which oh my God is so good and so fun. Something I like about it is you can have two fully kitted primary guns on one loadout if you put on the perk Overkill. The only time I did this was for my loadout for Ground Wars. This huge 24v24 player mode is so much fun. I’ve gone into detail about it during the beta and it’s still just as good as it was back then.

The game does have a habit of dropping frames from time to time but that hasn’t been too big of an issue for me as of right now. The Gunplay in the multiplayer is still just as fast and intense as it always has been and reminds me of playing good old Modern Warfare 2 back in the day. It feels like a Modern Warfare game again and it has some of the best Guns from way back when as well.

Everything we loved about the old Modern Warfare titles and what makes Call of Duty well Call of Duty is here in all of its glory. If you use to be a Call of Duty fan and left because well all of the not so great ones then this is the best time to come back and give it another go. And on that, all I have to say is welcome back to Modern Warfare.

Currently playing: The Outer World

Now I’m am and always have been a huge fan of WWE and the 2k games have always been so much fun to play. They aren’t the best game around by any stretch but they are always fun to play with friends and always scratch that of wrestling video game itch. As you saw in the title and the title image above though this game is not doing well.

2K20 has some of the worst graphics of honestly this generation, yes, I’m talking about worst then the Assassin Creed Unity faceless graphics as well. In this game, there has been footage shown where the game literally just has wrestlers faces melting or hair not attached to a model.

In fact, the studio head of Yuke’s whose company recently split with 2k games actually reported that they had used a lot of the same Asset from an older version of the game. For those not in the know, an Asset is usually a model that is in the 3D space of the game, for example, a bench or wrestling ring.

2k had Yuke’s literally bringing over the old asset from their older WWE games to more than likely cut cost and time. In fact, the game is so bad that an older version of The Rock from a Ps2 yes you read that right PS2 Smackdown game actually looked better than the model of The Rock in 2K20.

It’s safe to say this game is not worth buying at all and clearly shipped in an unfinished state. Maybe this will be the game that will show developers we won’t buy unfinished products because that has started to become the norm with early access games and even a lot of AAA titles. But that is an article for another day.

I don’t recommend buying this game at all it was clearly not finished and the “patch” that was 12 GB didn’t even fix any of the issues it’s clear 2K isn’t taking this very seriously at all. So, save yourself some cash and play an older WWE game at least they work.

Currently playing: Felix the Reaper

Fortnite’s original map is now dead and gone. Literally, it was sucked into a black hole a day later we now have a brand-new map with a few new mechanics as well. The big question, however, is why did epic do this? What made them decide to change the map and reset?

The easy answer would be to get more people to come back and play the game. With battle royals now a dime a dozen Fortnite is still the king of the mode with no end in sight. However, you can notice that they were on a slow decline in their player base. Due to more than likely a lack of anything new.

We as gamer’s are always looking to the new thing and can often get bored easily.  Epic saw this and decided to get our attention once again. I mean I haven’t played the game in over a year and even I played a few rounds since the new map came out. The fact that I got everyone to notice it again was amazing. Were talking about a game here that saw it was headed for a decline and change it that is incredible.

I am in no means a big Fornite player or really even that into to battle royal games at all. But being able to go back and see this new map with a fresh set of eyes was awesome for me. I know a lot of players who were starting to get bored and leaving the game for greener pastures that are now back on the bus landing at new areas it it really some special I think.

Epic was trying to boost itself back up to the top with Apex Legends getting a new map as well and Modern Warfare around the Conner Epic made the smart decision to give their players something new to play.From a business standpoint, it was really a good move because it really did get everyone talking about the game again. People were losing it that the game was unplayable for even the day and a half it was down or rather in a black hole.

As of now Fortnite is still the king of the Battle Royal and let’s be honest that’s not going to go away anytime soon. With games like Modern Warfare coming up soon though it will totally make sense that Epic might lose a lot of players to the other title. For now, though Fortnite’s new map is now live and is so far pretty fun to play. See you guys on the bus!

Currently playing: Witcher 3 Wild Hunt

Hey, guys, I wanted to say thank you for the last year! It was just my anniversary of working here at Multimedia mouth and it’s has been such a great ride here’s to many more years! N8

The original Yooka-Laylee game was a super fun love letter to Banjo-Kazooie made by the people who actually made the original ones. Now A lot of people have said it wasn’t the best game out there but the world and characters were a lot of fun and silly. So, what Play Tonics Game’s did was they took those characters and made a whole new platforming game that kept not only the same feel but works so much better.

Yooka-Laylee and the impossible lair has been such a fun platform game that very quietly came out this week with little to no marketing for it. To be honest with you I just happen to see it on the coming soon page of the Xbox Market place a few months ago and I was genuinely curious to see what they were doing new with these characters. First off, the game is now mostly 2D side scroller in the actual levels of the game.

In the hub world of the game however, it’s a 2.5D environment that you can explore at your own pace solving puzzles to open up new areas and changing the levels themselves. On that note, each level has two-zone basically one that you get off the bat and others you have to make appear yourself by for instant pouring water on the book that acts as the gate into the level.

When you would put water on a level that was as first just a normal jungle level is now full of water that makes you go to whole new sections of the same level and going to whole new places as well. It is so much fun to see levels change and becoming something new in fact they generally become harder on the second run. Think Celeste B- Sides on that game’s levels but not as hard.

Now the biggest question is how is the platforming itself I can honestly it is so much fun and so very smooth. Yooka- Laylee works so much better as a 2D platformer over a Collectathon like Banjo-Kazooie. There are some points in the game where I was going so fast picking of momentum and going faster and faster that it felt like I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog.

The game to me seems to take a lot of the best Classic platformer styles and put them altogether to somehow make it work so well. The game may look cute and kind but there are some levels I couldn’t believe I got stuck on. There are some times that I found levels to be super hard not impossible just a nice steady rise in difficulty. Each level adds new mechanics that build on previous levels giving the game a great progression.

The objective is to gather all 48 of the Queen bees beetalin yes there’s a lot of bee puns in order to run the impossible lair. Now you can run Capital B, the main villain, impossible lair at any point but the more bees you have the more hits you can take. So, it is so important to gather these otherwise it’ll be impossible to beat the lair. Believe me, I have tried.

All and all this new game from Play Tonic Games is such a solid platforming game that brings a ton of classic feelings from the great Platform games of old. It feels like a love letter to them and has such a great incline in difficulty. I highly recommend giving it a go if you’re a fan of platformers. Yooka-Laylee and the impossible Lair is on sale for now for $29.99.

Currently playing: Yooka-Layee and the impossible Lair

This weekend the Call of Duty Modern Warfare Open Beta took place and let me tell you it was a hell of a good time. The mode that was the most fun and action pack to play wasn’t even team Deathmatch it was war games a 32-32 player mode where you are all trying to hold command points. Team with the most points at the end wins.

What made this mode fun to me was that it put domination in a much bigger scale than ever before adding all kind of vehicles as well to play with. This game to meet felt hard-hitting with its gunplay even shooting the guns in the game felt new and refreshed. The map that we’re able to play on was huge and there were times in these 20-minute matches I never saw certain points because I was so busy helping my team hold other objectives.

On top of that, they give you 4-man squads to spawn in on. While this all feels like a rip of Battlefield it still, however, feels like Call of Duty when you get down to gunplay. Take away all of the bullet drop and class base portion of Battlefield and that’s more of where this mode is at. Fast pace big battle that remind me of Big Team Battle from Halo and Conquest mode from Star Wars Battlefront 2

However, it still feels like this new mode brings enough to the table to keep it not only fresh but very fun to play. If you’ve been on the outs about playing another Call of Duty like I have been trust me this beta help me see what’s in store next.

They’re also a few modes that you were allowed to play depending on what time you hop on one of them for me was Gunfight which had 2 teams of 2 going up against each other on a super small map and the catch is you have to find guns you spawn with none. Whoever kills the other team first wins the round. However, I only played this match once and wasn’t super clear on how many rounds you have to win to take the match.

It is a super fun mode though that rewards quick thinking and fast reflexes. Depending on only one other person to win is very interesting as well because you have to make sure the teammate is just as well-armed otherwise it just going to be you against two other players. It to me felt like a very small Battle Royal duos match because of the fact that you have nothing at the start if you like BR modes then I’d take a look at gunfight when it comes out.

On top of all that, we did get a brand new single-player trailer for Modern Warfare as well and if really gave me an idea of the tone of the story and having  Price once again front and center makes this new game’s story seem very interesting and just from what I saw it feels very dark.  The new trailer also showed the new team you’d be working and each of these characters feel fleshed and important only time will tell how important it kind of reminded me of Noble team from Halo Reach.

I see a lot of good potential in this new installment I think with all the time I spent with the beta over the weekend it left me wanting more and to get back into the fight. With the new trailer as well, it’s left me with questions that I want answers when I play the game. The new Call of Duty is set to come out October 25th.

Currently playing: Borderlands 3 

Heading back to the borderlands after so much time has passed since the last one was not only some of the most fun, I have in forever but also such a great trip of almost nostalgia for me. I love the borderlands series they are some of the most fun I’ve ever had on my own and with my friends. Playing Borderlands 3 feels like the culmination of what made this series so great to start with. The gunplay is smoother than ever it feels great to play with every gun you get your hands on.

My favorite being Jakob’s style carbine and revolvers. This game really feels like the Devs looked at every other title and then said ok let’s make it better. Having, for example, a slide and mantle system in the game made climbing around the game so much more fun to do.

Even the games legendary drops felt much more kind I got my hands on more than a few legendary guns that I thought were so much fun to play with. The DOOM style shotgun that plays a cord of a Guitar when you fire it is still one of the coolest guns, I’ve ever had in a video game.

Then we have the four playable classes Gunner, Siren, Operative, and Beastmaster. All having a very unique style of play that completely changes the more you go up their 3 skill trees. Each of the classes themselves have so much personality in every word they speak in the game. FL4K (Flak) is without a doubt one of the coolest characters I’ve ever played. On top of that this game it just feels inclusive to all types of people having FL4K being a non-binary character they actually might be one of the first characters to ever be non-binary in a video game.

On top of all that if you’re wondering if the the game still has its brand of fart joke humor don’t worry it still very much there. Even to the point if you do 69 points of damage your character can be heard giggling. FL4Ks ability to have a different beast with him that adds all kinds of different stats to you are so awesome. All of these characters play so well and a ton of different play style just within the 4 classes. Including Moze having a giant freaking robot she rides around in as her ability.

The story itself feels like it really wraps up the games overall story from the last 3 games very well. It didn’t show all of the awesome characters from the last 3 games but I’m hoping the DLC will fix all of that up. The main villains the calypso twins are great as well, Tyreen is funny and sarcastic but you can also in some ways feel for her and understand what her original goal was until she goes nuts prior to the game.

However, the game is not perfect it plagues with all kinds of frame rate problems and the split-screen mode is almost unplayable. Which is disappointing considering Borderlands couch co-op style. This has already been addressed by gearbox and is currently being worked on by the Devs so hopefully, a fix will come out soon.

Overall, if Borderlands 3 is the end of the series it brings a much welcome return and makes me excited for the future DLC and in terms of the Story warped itself up in a nice way that if it were to be its end then our last trip to Pandora was probably the best one so far.

Currently playing: Borderlands 3

Hey guys one last thing In place of me reviewing games and giving some sort of score, I decided to from now on just talk about the pro and cons of what makes video games great hope you guys like it. N8