I’m almost certain that most people have heard of Dark Souls. After all, it is what game journalists just love comparing difficult games too. Its known for its brutal yet fair difficulty and the ever so iconic “You Died” prompt every time you slip up. Back when the game first came out it acted like a right of passage for gamers. It separated the casuals from men. If you ever asked for advice you were often told to just “git gud.” If you couldn’t git gud then you just had to get over it.

All the games in the Souls series tend to follow the same path: you are the hero destined to overthrow the lords and collect their souls. Throughout your journey, you will meet memorable and iconic characters like the beloved Solaire of Astora, and not so trusty Patches, who will punish you for being greedy. Often times the world is dead and dreary. Something bad has or is happening. The Dark Souls series showcases some of the finest world building and level design in recent years and this is part of why the franchise is so beloved by countless players all across the globe.

The game presents a dark and dreary world. The iconic line “don’t you dare go hollow” is often compared to mental health and depression. In the game a character will grow more and more hollow with each death. Finally they will reach a point where they have lost all faith and reasons to live. They accept their fate and give up. Several characters will go hollow in the series, but none more memorable than Oscar, Solaire, and Siegmeyer. Even the lords you fight along your journey are hollow. Gwyn, driven mad by his fear of the age of dark, hollows trying to keep the first flame lit. Artorias, one of Gwyn’s loyal knights known for walking in the Abyss, went mad due to overexposure.

What makes this game so special and memorable is the breathtaking scenes. Witnessing the beautiful Moonlight Butterfly majestically rise up in dark root garden, arriving at Anor Londo, or even returning to the Kiln of the First Flame in Dark Souls III. Even bosses are gorgeous in their own twisted way. The beautiful fluent exchanges of greatswords from Farron Keeps Abyss Watchers is one of the best fights in the series. Watching Sister Friede engulf the room in flames and Slave Knight Gael lose his sanity to create a new world are just some of the most memorable moments from Dark Souls III. Honestly, some of the best moments come from the third game. Yes, without the first game there wouldn’t be that nostalgia punch when players fight the Soul of Cinder in the Kiln or when they return to Anor Londo. It’s moments like these that make the games special.

I adore these games. I haven’t played anything quite like them. Bloodborne was good but it didn’t feel as special as the others. Hopefully Sekiro will live up to its hype and deliver the experience that SoulsBorne fans want it to.

Apex Legends, the new free to play battle royale game by Respawn, launched earlier this week much to everyone surprise. The title received no form of marketing outside of a few tweets here and there, yet the game has already amassed ten million players in just three days. Even streamers like Ninja, Shroud, and DrDisRespect are getting in on the action making it one of the most viewed games on Twitch ranging from 200 to 500 thousand viewers a day.

It plays similar to how you’d expect it to play: a dropship flies over island sending players plummeting down to battle it out. Looting works similar to Blackout or Pubg, kill an enemy and they drop their player stash. Now, however, the UI will help the player, identify any loot they need or don’t need by simply marking weaker or less efficient items with a red x. This is a major improvement over other titles in the shooter subgenre where you would have to manage different types of ammo, armor or attachments. If it doesn’t fit don’t grab it. Weapon attachments will auto-equip upon being picked up and will even swap out if you already have one in use. They will even transfer to compatible weapons should you drop a gun for a better variant. This is about where the similarities end. Now at the start of each match, you must select a Legend. Each Legend has its own unique abilities. Bloodhound is able to track and hunt down enemy players with his ultimate, which is quite similar to the predator vision. Pathfinder, the recon scout, is able to deploy a zip line for his teammates and can even identify the next zone by hacking into data terminals. This unique touch is what separates Apex from other games like Blackout or Fortnite.

Now for some of the lackluster aspects of this game. In its current state, there is only one mode. No solo, duo or LTM like Fortnite, just trio. You could argue that the game is meant to be more team based since the addition of different Legend, each with their own skills, but the lack of different modes has left a bitter taste in some players mouths. The game still has some dips in its frames even with it being as polished as it is. Add inconsistent crashes and server issues and your overall experience begins to rapidly decrease. As of now, my game has crashed around ten or eleven different times. With that being said I have yet to find any major game breaking bugs or exploits being used by players to gain some sort of advantage.

After about some thirty odd matches I'd like to say that this game is a major breath of fresh air. Many people were skeptical about a new title, with zero promotional ads, in an already over-saturated genre. Apex does exactly what it set out to do: be different and set itself apart from the competition. Is this game perfect? No, not at all. In fact, I would say it’s nowhere near perfect in its current state. Regardless of its flaws, it’s an overall enjoyable game that’s a lot of fun with friends. I highly recommend this game but at the same time offer up a warning about the current stability of the shoot.