Battlefront III Tips

     I learned I've been playing Battlefront III all wrong today. I watched a few videos and learned a few things. Yeah, that's for true (Stewie Family Guy reference)!
     First, always play in third person. This is not a first person game at all. You will be punished hard if you play in first person. You'll get stuck walking into rocks and walls. It happened to me today and I was all like 'wtf!'. It wasn't fun getting shot while I was stuck against a rock. You can see around corridors inside easier in third person and you can see farther in open spaces.
     Second, always try to fire from the hip. If you hardscope and zoom in you don't have better accuracy, that's just how the game mechanics work apparently. Most of the firefights in this game are fired shots from the hip so you better get used to it.
      Third, do not waste your credits on the visual haircuts and faces. Instead buy the essential guns and stuff that you need. Try to focus on working your skills with one gun. Get the thermal detonator as soon as you can. I still need to get that. Now that I know how powerful it is I'll get it asap.
     Fourth, get in turrets. Use turrets. You can get a lot of kills that way.
     Fifth, don't fly if you're a beginner like me. Leave the ship flying to pros who know how to use it. Only get in the ships when your team is winning and it doesn't matter if you're not shooting down vehicles.
     Sixth, make sure to run around the map and pick up the powerups. You can get heroic powerups that let you play as heroes as well as picking up powerups that cooldown on your hand, allowing you to throw grenades twice before cool down and stuff like that.
     Lastly, run and gun. This is a run and gun game. Although there are modes with 40 players you still need to run and run. Your team is there to support you but they are running and gunning too. I just learned all of this just now. Makes me see the game a little bit different. For one thing I was playing in first person today and I was noticing how bad it was. And I was doing badly always zooming in on my shots. Take care and good games!

Holidays Are Here

     Holidays are here! Now is that time that you either love or hate. I've been seeing it on both ends of the spectrum. At first I was hating this Holiday season because I'm working all these extra hours but after reevaluating everything I have found my inner Zen and am doing great. I'm happy about the extra hours because it means more money to spend on gifts to ensure that this is great Christmas. Also, it means more money for me to save. It's actually a win-win. Everything's been great lately. I've been doing a lot of gaming, especially Super Smash Bros. I'm thinking about picking up some more gifts for co-workers and games for some friends.
      The things I would get for my co-workers would be simple Holiday chocolates, coffee, hot chocolate, etc, all Holiday-themed of course. I wanted to get one of my favorite managers this cute cup with a Fox wearing a monocle that also had chocolate inside of it. I'll have to go back to the store to see if that's still there. I think she would really find it cute. The other items would be the usual Holiday type stuff. Nothing too fancy.
     For most of my friends I already got them gifts but I'm thinking about getting one of my friends an Xbox360 game, maybe CoD BoIII or Metal Gear Solid Ground Zeroes. Then there's friends that I have on Steam. I was thinking about getting two of them Undertale, this great new rpg that has a lot of interesting mechanics and is really big on the internet. Undertale is like a cult classic now and its super big on the net. Lots of people on Facebook are using the characters from the game as their profile pictures and stuff,. I looked into the game and I would want to play it myself, but lately I haven't been playing too many rpgs.
     I still have games on my Steam list that I got from last Christmas and I haven't played them even once. I have too much and too little time. When I get online I have to make a decision what to play and I just haven't gotten to maybe like 4 or 5 games. These games include Fallout New Vegas, Deadspace, Victoria, a good portion of the Dawn of War series, PayDay 2, Company of Heroes, Endless Space, Half Life, and Portal. In addition, I've only played a bit of Bioshock and Grey Goo. My list is so big, complete with 32 games! Insane collection. All of them are like great games too.
      I'm thinking about buying myself something nice before Christmas, or just something for myself. I was thinking of a game but its hard to say what I really want because I already have a great collection. But I was thinking about getting Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U, Call of Duty Black Ops III, maybe pre-purchasing the new WoW (been meaning to get back into that game), Guilty Gear Xrd Sign, Skullgirls, Super Mario Maker, and pre-purchasing Street Fighter V. I think the safe option would just to buy Guilty Gear Xrd Sign ($23) or Skullgirls ($15). That way I could still enjoy and pick up a new game while spending  a relatively low amount of money because those other titles are all $60. I'll probably try out Skullgirls because I played it a friends house and it seemed like a great fighter. It features girls from the 1920's in fantastic detailed colorful artwork and all the girls have cool fighting techniques to take each other out. Sounds fun.
     In an earlier post I talked about how this is the Christmas of Starwars. The movie came out today and people have already seen it. I'm not too hyped about it but I do want to see it eventually. It doesn't have to be too soon, maybe I'll go see it with some friends after the Holidays are over and the movie isn't so hyped up. Also, they're marketing the hell out of the Starwars Battlefront III game which I despise. My friend at work told me today he really likes the game and that he can get into the competitive aspect of it. He said I have to level up and get more of the guns and stuff before I can really make a judgement on if its good or bad. For one thing, I never even got the jetback, which you don't get until like level 18. I think I'm level 4 at the moment haha.
     Life has been good to me. I've met a lot of great new friends and I've had a blast hanging out with them. In other good news, my brother passed the first A+ certification today. I'm really happy for him. I think he should be able to pass the 2nd test pretty easily. I should follow his footsteps and learn computers myself, I'm online, gaming, and using computers all the time so I might as well learn all about them. He's tried to get me into it before but I never really showed interest. I still consider myself a musician even though I haven't practiced in a long time. I haven't had a lesson with my teacher for a while either. I guess we're taking a hiatus for the Holidays. I feel bad about neglecting music because as much as I love gaming I'm a much better guitarist than a gamer. I consider myself a guitar otaku. Plus I've been keeping up listening to a lot of great jazz. Right now I'm listening to saxophonist Jackie McLean. I've really got to get back to playing guitar. That was always the original plan. To make myself some kind of musician while working. But that's the topic for another post.
     Enjoy the Holidays. I know this time can be rough but in the end its all about being with your family and loved ones. With only like a week left before Christmas you all better make sure to get your final gifts! I still have to get things myself. I'll probably be working on Christmas but I'm prepared for it. It'll be nice to be with my work family anyways. But if I do end up working I'll still be like,"Bah humbug!"

E3 News

     E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo happened recently here in LA! Too bad I didn't go, it would've been badass if I went and got to meet some gaming celebrities and gaming YouTube personalities. I'm a big fan of BlackNerdRants, Melonie Mac, Angry Joe, and TotalBiscuit. They really do some great videos on games and gaming in general, it would just be cool to meet someone like that. But the whole E3 experience is learning about all the new content and games that will be coming out this holiday season and next year. There is literally tons of games, too many to mention so I'll talk about some of my personal favorite new things that I've seen in the press conferences from E3 from YouTube videos. 

     First, I'm really hyped for StarWars the Old Republic. I used to play the game when it first came out but since then the game has now gone free to play (with reduced xp unfortunately if you play free) and has a couple of interesting expansions like Rise of the Hutt Cartel and something involving the Jedi Revan from StarWars Knights Of the Old Republic. Anyways check out this new expansion trailer here. I thought this trailer was badass. It shows that there's going to be a new faction in the game that doesn't seem really Sith nor Jedi, even using the neutral yellow colored lightsabers to confirm this. I really liked in the trailer how it shows how this two kids, royalty it looks like, were trained as youth to become warriors and later when they've grown up it shows them conquering planets, killing both Jedi and Sith alike, and then bringing home lightsabers from a Jedi and a Sith to their father who is most likely the Emperor of this new faction. Then one of the sons attacks his father in an attempt to kill him but the other son stops him using a force push and ends up getting sliced in the side by the attacking brother. Then the father is all like 'come with me my son.' It just breathes epicness and tugs on the emotional heartstrings as well. How could a father let his son kill his other son? So there's that game. I'm most likely going to subscribe to Swtor when this expansion comes out. It'll be out in October 2015. 

     I'm a big Star Wars guy when it comes to the games. The movies are ok but I prefer the stories in the game, although they aren't official canon. Star Wars Battlefront 3 is going to be great from the looks of the game play they showed at E3. Check it out here. This game-play footage really shows off what the game will be like on release. From the looks of it, it seems they've kept the same playing style as Battlefront 2 but made the game better with today's enhanced graphics. Every little detail in the video looks pristine and crisp. Imagine playing this game on PC on the best graphics settings possible, it will look beautiful. Parts that really stood out in this game-play footage was the part where he's just running and all of a sudden he sees a trooper get force choked, and Darth Vader walks out into the battlefield! And then Luke Skywalker walks out and starts to attack Vader! So that kind of shows that you will be able to play as heroes like Jedi and Sith Lords. The game seems to me to be an updated version of Battlefront 2, which is all a great Star Wars video-gaming fan can dream for. 

     Then, there's the Final Fantasy VII remake. Check out the trailer here. I don't feel like Final Fantasy VII needs a remake but it will be interesting seeing how the game will look with today's enhanced graphics. I wonder if they will change anything about the game that is really different. They could make it like a modern Final Fantasy game, which are actually pretty terrible in my opinion. It's something to be excited about because the original was pretty much the game of my childhood. Final Fantasy was my Ocarina of Time, even though I played Zelda as well. Playstation one was my life as a kid. I enjoyed playing all those rpgs like Final Fantasy Tactics, FF8-9-10-. Legends of Dragoon, and Xenogears. Great times! 

     Lastly, the announcement of Fallout 4. I personally haven't played any of the Fallouts but my brother has and I often watch streams on twitch.tv of people streaming Fallout 3. I just find it to be a really entertaining game to watch. Plus, its one of the best kind of dystopian game series out there!

     Lastly, there's tons of stuff but too much to write about in one sitting. My friend from work made a list of all the games from E3 that he's planning to get. They include so many games but most of them are shooters or action oriented shooters based on tactical game play and decision making. Unfortunately I haven't heard anything really good coming from Nintendo at E3. All I've heard about is a Super Mario Maker game where you can make your own Mario levels and play them online with people and a really bad looking game that looks inspired by Metroid Prime. I wish they could have announced that they were making an American version of Xenoblade Chronicles X, that would have been sick! But we didn't get any news about Xenoblade at all. One of my good friends seemed dissapointed with Nintendo this year, reasonably so. There's way more games but I just haven't gotten to watching the footage or trailers yet. But this is definitely a great time to be a gamer. All the technology and the graphics are all just top notch. What a time to be alive!

    

    

Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2: Thoughts and Opinions

     

     Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 2 is one of the best games I've ever played. It takes place five years before Starwars Knights of the Old Republic 1 and isn't made by Bioware. Rather it is made by a company called Obsidian. This is a much darker game compared to the first one and perhaps compared to all Starwars games. This game really pushes the ante when it comes to the dark side and what it means to be Sith or Jedi.
     You play as a general of Darth Revan's who fought during the Mandalorian wars but lost a connection to the Force, and is slowing regaining all of your abilities. Your name is Meetra Surik and you find out that you were cast out of the Jedi order for fighting with Revan in the Mandolorian wars. You wake up in a Sith spaceship and you meet a woman named Kreia, who becomes your mentor. Later, you find out that she was a Sith Lord named Darth Traya and that she was guiding you and influencing your every move throughout the game. So basically you have to escape this ship and from there the story really starts.
     For me, the game really begins when you meet Atris on Telos. She tells you all about how you were cast out and she even had kept your light-saber hanging up on her wall to remind her of you and the fall of the Jedi. Supposedly Atris says she's the last Jedi and that she doesn't care what you do but later you find out she was into the Dark side, like a lot.
     So you figure out at some point that there are a few of the Jedi order still alive so you set out to find them. You have the option to kill them, or maybe they die anyways by Kreia's hand, because at the end she becomes a villain to you. I didn't try any of the light side options in the game so I went ahead and struct down all the Jedi. Then, Kreia tells you what you have learned after hunting down all the Jedi. For me, she said that I had much to learn still and that her teachings have shown me nothing through the Force. Being a bad guy gets you nowhere with her perhaps? In between that, you can either help a revolution in a major city or hinder it as well.
     So at the end you have to destroy a Sith ship and kill a Sith Lord named Darth Nilhilus who apparently cannot speak English and wears a pretty cool mask. He's an apprentice to Darth Traya. He puts up a good fight and goes down. After you blow up his Sith ship you have to go down to Malachor V to confront Darth Traya and her other apprentice Darth Scion. Darth Scion is a Sith Lord with powers that allow him to come back to life every time he dies. So you have to kill him a few times. Then you fight and defeat Kreia or Darth Traya and the game end. She tells you that by killing her she has succeeded in training you in the Darkside and that nothing could make her happier. Pretty bad feelings huh? That's the path of the Darkside. All in all, a great story. I wouldn't say its better than the first one but its much darker in terms of themes and story-lines. What a game!