Over the last week I have been spending time trying to get into the world of Death Stranding. I have had multiple friends tell me that is was a great game and the game play loop would be something that might actually hook me. I have played my fair share of odd games that I cant stop playing even when they seem boring. For example, I am currently obsessed with Farming Simulator 19 on the PS4.

I finally caved in and bought Death Stranding to see if my friends were right and at the same time to see if my own theories were right or wrong. I settled in one night with a drink and began my journey into the mind of Hideo Kojima.

Now there are more than enough reviews of this game so I will not waste your time with giving you my thoughts that have been spoken and written by multiple different sources.

To be clear I did not finish this game, I put in about 12 hours but after that mark I finally had to put down the controller and say good bye to Death Stranding.

While I was struggling with whether or not I was to continue playing the game I realized that the feature that was making me not to continue was the game play itself. I was interested in the story as a whole but I hated that I had to play the game to get to those cut scenes. This is when I realized why I really don't like this game, I believe that Hideo Kojima might not be in the correct medium for his ideas.

I want to be very clear on this, I do not believe that Kojima is not a very skilled and talented game designer. I have played many of his games and have found enjoyment in them for many years. But now that he is free to make whatever he wants we are starting to see the full potential of his work.

I believe that his stories would be better told in a different medium like in movies or a series of some kind that would give more people the chance to experience his stories.

I am happy that other people are enjoying Death Stranding but this game just made it more clear for me that his works might be better suited for the theatres than in video games.

Please feel free to comment below on if you are agree or not!

Thank you for taking the time to read this post!

Matt Damon takes on the role of Jason Bourne for the fourth time. In this new film, we dive deeper into the backstory of Jason Bourne. In the previous movie starring Matt Damon, The Bourne Ultimatum, we found out that Jason's real name was David Webb and he signed up for the Treadstone Program to help protect his country, and in turn gave up his name and everything he used to be to become the perfect weapon. In the movie, Jason Bourne, we start to get some more of the puzzle pieces that is David Webb's life, but in turn, Jason is pulled out of the shadows and directly in the cross hairs of CIA director, Robert Dewey played by Tommy Lee Jones. Once again Jason is forced in the middle of a bitter conflict that he now must take part in and maybe answer a couple questions about himself.

Thoughts:

Overall this movie might have been one too many in the series for me. I really enjoyed where they left off after Bourne Ultimatum, Jason finally found out who he was and could maybe work on putting his shattered life back together. Did that movie answer all the questions about Jason Bourne/David Webb? No! but maybe the mystery would have been better than trying to squeeze one last movie from this expired idea. It is hard to look at this movie and not compare it to previous ones, and while you are enjoying the film you might start to take notice of some large differences. In this most recent film, we find Jason not as experienced as he was in previous movies. He will make countless mistakes and in turn, puts him in a position I doubt Jason Bourne would normally do. Also, in previous ones, there was a good balance of action, chase, conversation, and personal struggle. In Jason Bourne, I found that if there wasn't a chase happening, I would be getting motion sick watching flashbacks or trying to read text messages over the shoulder of Matt Damon with a very shaky cam. With the previous Bourne films there was usually one or two big chase scenes, but for the most part, this whole movie was a chase scene or just shots of people walking/standing in the streets of different cities.

As I said in the beginning of this section, Jason Bourne might have been one too many movies. This character does have a lot of awesome qualities, but when the audience can start guessing the plot, it might be time to move on. There were some good action scenes, some of the characters were good, but over all this movie was just the last nail in the coffin for Jason Bourne.

Batman the Telltale series, Episode 1, brings the best of both worlds of Batman, Bruce Wayne and Batman. In past Batman video game titles most developer focus on the dark stealth and heavy fighting mechanics, very few games bring Bruce Wayne to for forefront. Just like most Telltale games, this game is all about how you, the player, wants to experience the story. Choose the answer that you would be most likely to say, or try and step in the shoes of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Allow yourself to think as Bruce Wayne would, how would he portray himself at a press conference or how would he talk to a friend that is walking the knife's edge between good and evil. These are just some of the opportunities that will be presented to the player in the first episode of the Batman Telltale game series.

What about awesome fights and stealth takedowns?

Fear not my concerned Batman fan, Telltale gives the player opportunities to get close to some awesome fight scenes. Just like in all other Telltale games there are mass amounts of quick-time events during battles. In this episode the developers did a great job fixing one of my personal concerns, the location and size of the command buttons. During some of the previous Telltale games the face buttons on screen would be slightly out of view of the main action shots so I would fumble on the quick-time event, which results in my character's death. In episode 1: Realm of Shadows, the face button issue I struggled with has been fixed, and is brightly colored and placed in the center of the action. Quick-time events is not the only form of action in this game, at one point Batman is scouting out the hideout of Carmine Falcone with his trusty bat-drone. This allows Batman to know what he is facing and what might be the best way to approach the situation. This is where I think the game fell a bit short. When setting up my approach i was really only able to go in from one direction. I was hoping I would be able to do more of a stealth entrance and just kicking in the door with a thugs head.

What story arch is this game following?

Before all the comic nerds blow a gasket, this game does not follow the Batman lore. It takes famous characters from the series and changes some of the relationships. I think this provides a new look at the Batman universe, and also prevents having the concern of getting lore wrong. If there is one thing fans of Batman love to do is break down why movies or games are wrong and could have been better. In Realm of Shadows, Bruce Wayne is helping support Harvey Dent for Mayor of Gotham. This brings Bruce and his family history into the light more than he would like, but he knows more than anyone that he cant stop crime by himself. With Dent's help to replace Mayor Hill there might be a chance that Gotham can be a safe place for everyone. Throughout the game there are appearances of other characters such as; Selina Kyle, Jim Gordon, Carmine Falcone, and maybe some other people will join the list in the following episodes.

Whats your final take away on Ep 1?

After finishing this episode I must say I am enjoying the direction Telltale is taking with this series. Once I realized they were taking the idea of Batman and making their own story I got pretty excited. With most games that take on popular superhero figures, the last thing you want to mess with his the family history. In Realm of Shadows there is a source feeding the news outlet with information that might destroy the family name of the Waynes in the city of Gotham. This brought a lot of questions to where could the story might go and to be honest I'm pretty excited about it.

While playing the game it was hard not to notice some chugging in the frame rate. This is something that Telltale has been struggling with in most of their games, with that being said it is an improvement over some of their previous games. I only noticed some low frame rates during transitional scenes or panning during wide scene shots. There was still a bit of loading between chapters of the game and I believe that is something that really kills the experience at times. I hope in the following chapters they find a way to reduce these load times between chapters.

Overall this game looks amazing, and has some great voice acting that really brings the story to life. Troy Baker does an amazing job as Bruce Wayne and can make you scared stiff as Batman. If you are a Batman fan in any way, this is a game for you. Keep in mind that this is a Telltale game so these are episodes of the whole story, so each one is about 2 hrs.

What do you think of Telltale's Batman? Leave comments below.