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PS4: Played almost the entire game but a few of the sidequests like the Valkrie. This game is amazing. Combat is tight and about as good as this type of action game can be. The open world is fantastic and ever changing. My only complaint is that the story started out amazing, and even took a huge upswing, right before it started to fall flat with a huge character change that almost ruined the game. It smooths out towards the end, and the game culminates towards a direction that's rather unexpected and quite refreshing, but they didn't need to near ruin a great character to do that. It made a certain section of the game near unbearable, but I guess that was the point they were trying to make. The game overall was fantastic though.
Update: Bought a 4k HDR TV and a PS4 Pro, and boy does God of War shine in this department. Far and wide one of, not only the best Video Games I've seen in 4k HDR, but rather one of the best anything I've seen in 4k HDR. This game looks incredible, and somehow 10x better than how amazing it already looked.
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PS4: This is, without a doubt, the best gameplay ever in an Assassins Creed game. It's not without it's faults, like Ship sailing and combat not feeling anywhere close to as good as Black Flag, but I feel like they are limited there more by the time period than anything. The side stories are also pretty incredible even if some of the main story gets a bit dull. It does however wrap up with the out of Animus story in probably the best fashion of any AC game to date. I really appreciated the Spartans from 300 feel given in many places throughout the game, especially when first encountering Brasidas. Kassandra might be my favorite Assassin's Creed playable character to date. I loved this game.
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PS4: This might be my new favorite Super Hero game. While for a long time I wasn't a fan of the hand to hand combat, it really started to open up later in the game and swinging throughout the city felt amazing. The main campaign story is also not only the best story in any comic book video game by far, but one of the best this year just behind Red Dead and God of War. I really enjoyed this game.
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Forsaken PS4: As a huge fan of Destiny 1, this past year has been a bit of air being let out of the sails. Warmind brought the game back from the brink a bit with some good Quests and some great changes that paved the way for Forsaken, but it was a rough year, and the least I've ever played Destiny. This past week though, Forsaken has hit the ground running. Base changes to the overall game, weapon slots, economies (everything but Masterwork Cores for Infusion and 10 Mod Components to buy a Mod, both are too expensive and need adjusting), challenges, collections, etc are all overwhelmingly amazing additions that fix key issues that pretty much ripped the fun out of Y1 Destiny 2. The Forsaken Campaign is also, without a doubt, the best story has ever been in Destiny, from start to finish. From callbacks and set pieces like the Warden of Nothing Strike, to just roaming the ever beautiful Dreaming City, Forsaken is pretty much as good as I think Destiny can get on some fronts. But it isn't without it's faults. Power Leveling seems to be a hot topic, especially in light of Bungie's consistent failures to even bring about their own visions of it without a glitch that prevents a massive amount of the community from accessing a significant portion of the weekly "Powerful Rewards". The climb to become Raid ready is being significantly hampered by this appearance of a multiple End Game softcap due to Activity Power Levels, and it's hurting players of all levels, from the Hardcore to those who just want to play 15-20 hours a week and see the Raid within the first month (who likely won't be able to under this kind of oppressive system). One of the major new Activities in The Dreaming City is also showing Bungie's distict lack of listening to the communities desires over the past 3 years when it comes to big Public Space Activites with Blind Well. Don't get me wrong, it's a perfectly enjoyable experience, but it's one I want to have with my friends, and not 2 of my friends and up to 6 strangers. The sad truth is a fix for this as simply as not Orbiting players who leave a Fireteam, thus leaving them in their planet instance (an suggestion I know has been made multiple times on Reddit). Another huge sore spot for many in teh Competitive Multiplayer Destiny community is the loss of Trials of the Nine, and not only no replacement, but no mention of the when/how it may return at a later date. Competitive players are stuck with only a Comp Playlist that is pretty much universally disliked due to a variety of issues. But it's far from all doom and gloom when it comes to the brand new Activities, because Gambit is a bright spot for many when it comes to Destiny's Multiplayer, and especially those who never thought they would touch a Destiny Multiplayer again. A PvEvP mode is a perfect formula for Destiny, and I'm extremely interested to see how this experience will continue to grow over the next year, especially with Joker's Wild next Spring focusing so heavily on the game mode. The most exciting thing about Forsaken right now though is, we haven't even seen the most premier content that will launch until Friday when the Last Wish Raid launches. And even after that, the scraps of details Bungie has hinted about changes to the Dreaming City after it's launch seem tantalizing, so I'm exciting to dig into what all of that ends up being. Hopefully, even more surprises await us, because we've had hints of hidden Exotic Quest since well before launch, and none of that has been discovered yet. Is it locked within Last Wish? Are they time gated? Have we just not discovered the trigger yet? I'm excited to find out...
Update: After finishing Last Wish, multiple times, and the game brand new Activity, a Dungeon called Shattered Throne, it's safe to say PvE in Destiny has never been better. I really hope they continue to push Dungeon's as premier content in the future and in each DLC. The drastic changes to The Dreaming City over the past 8 weeks have been crazy, and incredible. This is exactly how Destiny as a franchise needs to be going forward. I do however, wish there was a bit more Whisper of the Worm treatment in this DLC. There were 4 Exotic Quests, the most satisfying one coming in the form of the Wish Ender bow in Shattered Throne, but at this point, after 3 of those Quests in Warmind, I guess I was just hoping for a bit more in that aspect. Things can still be improved, but it's safe to say Forsaken was amazing and a huge success from a critical standpoint.
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PS4: Let's start with the bad... Boy howdy does this thing control horrifically. Character movement, gun wielding and controls, and especially horse movement feel all kinds of clunky. Better guns later in the game help solve the gun issues, plus just increased use of the system makes it feel somewhat better, but Horses will auto run into Tree's, crash over rocks, and just jump off cliffs without your ability to ever really feel in control. It's often funny, but also extremely frustrating. But if you can get past that, and for many that might be a big ask, there is an incredibly beautiful game with both great side stories/mission and an amazing overarching story that fits like a glove into the original Red Dead Redemption, I don't think any prequel had let into another almost 10 year older game as well as RDR2 does here. And then add to this all the wacky hidden easter egg type Quest/Objectives, and some of the best random encounters of any video game I can remember, and it just becomes so much more frustrating that some of the moment to moment gameplay is sooo bad. Because without this boat anchor of awful design decisions and wonky AI, RDR2 is clearly the game of the year. But it's problems are sooo bad, it kind of kills the game. If you can get over the wonkyness, there is an amazing game here, with awesome random events, encounters, and truly great storytelling.
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PS4: Not entirely sure how I feel about this game yet. When it is good, man is it good. That opening was pretty incredible. Jokes at it's own series expense are great. But it's AI is way too smart, often creating weird gameplay moments where Planes come out of nowhere to bomb you, or an Enemy discovers a body and you after you Sniped him from 500ft away and he was behind a box container, or there is a random 50 cal Turret on the Road that kills you as you just drive by it. They need to seriously tone it down. It feels like Far Cry 2's far too aggressive AI, as opposed to what they did in Far Cry 3 & 4 that were huge improvements.
Update: Finished the game, and it really started hitting it's stride after finishing the first zone and upgrading a few skills like Health. The base health was just a tad too low to really sustain some of the random encounters, so obtaining the 2nd upgrade really helped in that regard a lot. Another big help is gaining enough money to purchase a fancy $7k Ak47, that just shreds enemies quickly. Gameplay has a sweet spot on your 2nd Lieutenant, but by your 3rd, your almost feel too powerful and the games loses a bit of steam as you just blow through areas of Gameplay. It's a hard balance to find, and one that Far Cry 3 had perfect, and 5 just doesn't hold very long. I did however really enjoy the story, especially it's rather dark nature. Far Cry 5 is a solid game with some serious merits, especially with how it looks in 4k HDR, but by the end of the year it shouldn't be at the top of my list.
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PS4: Having never played a Monster Hunter game before, I'm rather torn between a game that does so much better than anyone else, and a game that does so many things so terrible wrong that every other game has been doing for more than a decade. The story might as well not exist, but the Monsters more than make up for that in personality and the need to truly master them. I really enjoyed this game, much more than I feel I had any right to, and I never imagined spending this much time into it to begin with, so that's as much a testiment to the incredible gameplay as anything.
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PS4: It's a sequel to one of my favorite games a couple years ago. To that end, I probably feel worse about it than it deserves, because it delivers a sub par experience compared to it's predecessor. The story is alright, but tends to be a bit on the childish side with no meat to it. The combat is probably better than the first, but it takes away one of the best things in Familiars. The one great thing 2 does is Kingdom Building, Citizen Recruitment, and some of the Party Characters. This feature is probably what pushed me to finish the game to completion even after the end of the campaign.
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PS4: I have played a few hours of it so far, and its ok, but I put it down and completed 2 games 10x longer than it since, and am not feeling strong about returning. That says as much about it as anything.
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PC: I'm so torn on this game so far. With my first community, this game feels cheap in a way the first never did. The game kind of hoodwinked me, and killed off two major characters without my ability to react, which ruined my small community of 4 at the time. My second Community seems to be coming along better though, but it feels less connected to an overall story, which concerns me. I want to love this game like I did State of Decay, but I'm finding myself just avoiding playing it right now, hoping for patches.
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