Guilty Gear Strive. The Best Way to Get Into Fighting Games.

     

     Since its release on PC earlier this month, Guilty Gear Strive has been taking up most of my free time. And I have to say that this is the most fun I have had playing a fighting game online. The mechanics are low in number and easy to learn while still having enough depth to allow for fun experimentation. That's the key thing with Strive. Every time you learn something new, whether it be a combo or a movement option, it immediately feels rewarding. Most fighting games take days of learning before you even feel confidant enough to play against another player online. But thanks to its skill-based matchmaking and god-tier tutorial, Strive will have you feeling like a beast in no time.

Tales of Destiny (Directors cut)

         

     First things first, I want to give a quick shoutout to furiousg4m3r who made the patch I used when playing through the game. You can get the patch yourself at https://github.com/furiousg4m3r/Tales-of-Destiny-DC.

     Tales of Destiny is an amazing game, 9 out of 10. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, have a good night.

     In all seriousness though, this is a fantastic entry in the Tales of series and is a must-play for any fan. The characters are as lovable as ever and the combat is some of the crispiest in the series.

Biomutant. Objective Marker the Game.

     

     Biomutant was released over a week ago now. And all I can say after about 40 hours of playtime is that this is the perfect game for people who need something to occupy their hands while they watch a TV show. Many people called Death Stranding a walking simulator, but at least that game had interesting characters and an engaging story.

     Let's just jump right in. The combat is boring. This is weird to me since my initial impression was actually pretty positive. At first, it felt like a generic but competent battle system built around dodging and parrying like Arkham or Assassin's Creed. This is until I finished the tutorial and starting to build my character. It did not take me long to figure out that this game is not actually built for melee combat. While part of this can be blamed on me for going for a magic attack build, my brother who went with a tank melee build reported many of the same experiences. Engaging enemies in close quarters has far more risk than reward. If the encounter you are in features a giant enemy, specifically the reptiles, it is almost impossible to clear the encounter using only close-range attacks. You are basically forced to engage at a distance with either psi-powers or gun attacks for about 90% of the encounter and even then, ranged attacks are so much stronger, that melee only exists to look cool.