For Honor Alpha preview

   Thanks to a friend I scored an invite to the closed alpha.  I'll be honest For Honor hasn't held a lot of interest for me.  The story seems thin and nothing more than an excuse for Vikings and Samurai to beat the crap out of each other.  With knights thrown in the mix to make things somewhat more boring.  Seriously, why didn't they skip the knights and go with pirates?  Would've made things much more interesting.  Especially if you could hurl piratey insults at your foes.  I would pay money to see that.
   But anyways, I picked Vikings to start out with.  After learning the basics of combat I went on to try a PVP battle.  It's actually a lot of fun.  The combat isn't complicated but it gives you a simplified taste of what a real sword battle might be like.  Emphasis on simplified.  The controls could be a little more responsive; hopefully they'll be more polished in the beta.  I ended up playing all three factions just to see if the combat differed a lot between them.  Historically speaking their fighting styles are not at all similar but apparently Ubisoft decided to ignore that.  The combat animations are pretty much the same, at least for the characters that are unlocked in the alpha.  We'll have to wait for the Beta to really judge this, as each faction has a few different warriors to choose from.  
   Of course a lot of the game was locked, but apparently there is a campaign for each of the three factions, for those who don't like PVP.  Although let's be honest, PVP is undoubtedly the main focus of the game.  It's a little early to say whether it's worth buying, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.  I've already signed up for the beta; hopefully a little more of the game will be accessible then.  

Building a PC for the first time!

     So I've decided to dive into the world of PC gaming.  The only games I've ever played on the PC are Morrowind and World of Warcraft.  I love WOW and I really enjoyed modding the heck out of Morrowind.  My current PC wheezes it way through WOW but anything other than that kills it.  I bought Witcher 2 for it awhile back.  I figured I was safe, as my PC is fairly new and Witcher 2 is older.  My computer said thank you but no, and promptly croaked.
     Building it will take awhile, as I don't have the funds to order everything at once.  And I have a lot of research to do!  I really don't want it to explode when I turn it on for the first time.  I wanted it to be 4k compatible but unfortunately that is way over the budget.  A nice mid-range build will just have to do.  If anyone has any tips or advice they want to share that would be greatly appreciated!  I'll be posting photos and maybe videos as I get it built, but it'll probably be a few weeks yet before I get started.

No Man's Sky final thoughts-here be spoilers!

     I had high hopes for No Man's Sky, I really did.  It looked to be one of the best games of 2016.  Unfortunately, the reality fell far short.  For such an ambitious game, there's literally no point to playing it.  There's no storyline.  There is some lore, but to read it you have to learn the alien languages.  You WILL kill yourself, if you actually try to learn all the words--out of sheer boredom. Trust me, I know.  I tried.  I gave it up just before I did a swan dive off a cliff.
   The combat isn't too bad, once you get the hang of it.  It took me a few times but I got there.  The problem is the enemy ships fly circles around you while you try to track and shoot them.  Why can't the player do that?  I tried it once; it got me blown up.  I cannot swoop and shoot at the same time, the game makes it impossible.  So you kind of feel like a sitting duck.  It could use some improvement.
     There is at least a goal, to reach the center of the universe.  Everyone knows that.  It's been one of the biggest mysteries of the year.  What's at the center of the universe?  It's heartbreak, in case you're wondering.  Because the game resets and puts you right back at the beginning, with a broken ship and no supplies.  Unless you have 10 atlas stones.  In which case you can create a new universe, for a new traveler to explore.  No, you don't get to explore it.
     Which is a shame, maybe those new planets wouldn't all look alike.  Exploration could have been one of No Man's Sky saving graces.  People love to explore.  I love to explore; even in a video game.  But there has to be some variety besides three basic models; forest, rock and snow--that's it. Perhaps I got unlucky, and there's a desert planet I missed.  I don't know.  I can't be bothered to find out, it's too boring and that cliff will start to look inviting again.  Save yourself some trouble, and pick another game to play.  Rebel Galaxy is much better, and it's only $20.  (Plus it's influenced by Firefly).  

No Man's Sky first impressions

 

   

     I wasn't going to pick up No Man's Sky; I've gotten back into WOW and we all know what a time suck that is.  Between that and trying to finish Witcher 3 I haven't had a lot of free time, as you can tell by my lack of blog content.  But I decided to squeeze it in, as everything I've heard has been mostly positive.  Luckily No Man's Sky is a game that is best played in short spurts, at least for me.
     It definitely doesn't hold your hand.  Once you get your ship fixed you're free to leave the starting planet, never to return.  That's probably not the wisest course of action, but the game leaves it completely up to you how you want to play.  I decided to hop to a different planet, one that was prettier to look at it.  My goal was to discover all the species and waypoints, as that would give me 300,00 credits.  Two hours later I gave it up and moved on to a different planet.  I thought there was too much to see, to spend that much time on one planet.
     So far I've visited two galaxies, with 8 planets total.  There's not a lot of difference in how they look, which is a little disappointing.  Most of the planets were rock, two were forest planets and one was covered with glaciers.  The two forest planets were very similar, and the rocky ones are basically the same.  I actually took to naming them after the most abundant resource they had, in order to tell which one was which.  Even the plants and animals, while not identical, have a sameness to them from planet to planet.  I'm hoping once I get further into the game there will be more diversity.  The planets are so much alike that unless I need resources to craft I don't really bother exploring them.  That doesn't bode well for a game that is supposed to be all about space exploration.
     It's incredibly easy to make money in the game, or perhaps I just got lucky.  I've found that gold and Heridium are both plentiful, and they both sell for a good amount.  I found one planet that had so much gold I named it Midas so I could come back to it, as I got bored mining all the gold.  That's actually one of the biggest downfalls of the game; you will mine and mine and mine some more, which can get old.  I've heard that there will be updates later that will include building bases, so perhaps the developer will add some much needed depth to the game.  I'll put out an update in a week or two to let you know my final thoughts.  As of right now I'm on the fence with this one.

New loot pictures, for fans of Devil May Cry!

     So I wasn't entirely happy with the Dante statue I ordered recently, so it actually went back.  And I got this one instead.  I really can't describe how happy I am with the way it looks, so I'd thought I'd share!

Witcher 3 Blood and Wine-first impressions

   

     I'm about 8 hours into the expansion.  So far I'm really enjoying it, it definitely lives up to the quality we've come to expect from CDPR.  The quests are as varied and well-written as always, one of the things that makes playing Witcher such a pleasure.  I can't imagine doing 300 hours of fetch quests, nor do I want to.  The new region is beautiful and has a heavy french influence, from the names and accents to the vineyards and villages.  Beauclair, the capital city, is much prettier and feels much cleaner than Novigrad.  No slums to be found here.  The countryside doesn't look that different from the main game but it still remains one of the best looking games I've played this year.
     You'll definitely see some familiar faces.  I didn't expect Regis to make an appearance, as he died in the books.  It was a nice surprise, since he was one of my favorite characters.  He didn't have a huge part but he was indeed memorable.  I'm really hoping he doesn't die again, but we'll have to wait and see.  
     Quite a few additions have been made to the game.  There's five sets of grandmaster armor to track down.  I started with the Wolven armor set, but I believe the Manticore is the best.  It's light armor but the set bonuses are very powerful.  I'll let you know what I think if I ever get the coin to make them both.  I had over 20,000 gold and now I'm down to 154.  Not a good feeling, I have to be honest.  In addition to new armor Geralt also has access to powerful new mutations and four additional ability slots.  And I do mean powerful.  The new ability slots are not opened up by gaining levels but by researching new mutations.  Once you get those unlocked Geralt will be one overpowered character.  You can also break down mutagens and change them from one color to another, providing you find the recipes.        
     Now with the good, comes the bad.  (Well not really, nothing about Witcher is bad.  In my humble opinion).  While the writing is very good, somehow so far it's failed to live up to the standard set by Hearts of Stone.  Which sounds whiny, I know, because there's so much more included in Blood and Wine.  But the characters in Hearts of Stone were so well-written and so memorable that I think it's kind of hard to match that, let alone surpass it.  But I haven't finished the main campaign yet so that opinion could change.  I'll let you guys know as soon as I'm done!  So what do you guys think of the new expansion?  Better?  Worse?  Let me know!

Megacon loot pictures

     As promised I'm posting photos of Oberyn and the Hound up close.  The detail on them is really good, and I love that you can open and close the Hound's helm.  The pictures really don't do them justice, especially the Hound.  For some reason his eyes look a little weird in the photo but they don't look like that in real life.  After seeing these I'm a little disappointed that Dark Horse couldn't have done a better job with the Ned Stark figure, as it doesn't really resemble him that much in the face.  Oh and the last picture is not from Megacon, but something I picked up online.  I haven't decided whether to open it or not yet, since that destroys the value.  I really hate not to display it, so it'll probably get opened!  Let me know what you guys think!