Évaluations récentes de Aranrúth

As a part of buying a new Nvidia GTX 1060 , I received a game for free named Monster Hunter World. A game, which I had no clue what it was all about, mainly due to my lack of knowledge of the previous Monster Hunter installments from Capcom. I didnt even try to play the game, until one month later.

It starts with a character who travels to "New World", a land mass filled with monsters. Along with the Research Commission that studies the land and its monsters, from a region named "Astera". The player begins the game by commencing a quest in "Ancient Forest".

On hindsight it feels, along with the character, I had also commenced my "journey" - a journey to the amazing world of Monster Hunter. What an amazing journey it has been. How do I even begin to explain?

MHW + its expansion iceborne, consists of many distinct regions like - Ancient Forest, Wildspire Waste, Coral Highlands, Rotten Vale, Elder's Recess, Hoarfrost Reach and Guiding Lands. Each and every region, along with its tundra, the materials, the flora and fauna, the wildlife are distinctly different from one another. The joy I had in discovering the regions, even the smallest of them, were nothing short of amazing. The amount of time spent on collecting materials from these regions is insane, since there is always something you would have missed.

The gameplay is very simple yet complicated - like most modern games, the player starts with the most basic of armor/weapons and eventually progress by defeating stronger monsters,thereby getting better weapons/gear. The real beauty of the game is that it allows so many different ways to achieve this, with the help of 14 types of weapons. Weapons, which i have never heard, seen or used before in any games. Each and every weapon is unique, has its pros and ♥♥♥♥ and not to mention their unique moves. I started the base game with dual blades, switched to bow till i reached a certain level and then changed to my favourite weapon charged blade. My current go to weapon being Long sword. I can keep on writing about the weapons, but it is something a player has to experience, persist and then slowly try to master it. Players will have a total different experience in taking on the same monsters with different weapons, the materials needs might be different and skills attached to it as well.

MHW is not a hack and slash game - the player needs to understand the mechanics of weapons, how to build the gear around it, the preparation - in identifying the monsters weakness, the "food" the player needs to eat from canteen before a battle, how to use the environments in players favour, how/when to use traps. Last, defintely not the least and certainly the most important - studying/understanding monster movements , there by developing positional awareness in battles. This is crucial and is the main difference between a good hunt and tedious one where the player rage quits. The concept is simple, but learning curve is steep and the player needs to persist with it, in-order to have the best game experience. Monsters can still wreck you even after this :)

The monsters in monster hunter world - starting with the Great Jagras to the big daddy of 'em all Fatalis - all unique and distinct. Their strengths, weakness, movements and attacks are so different - that it shows the amount of work Capcom has put into them. I have lost count on the amount of monsters and their "variants" available in this game. This is nothing short of exceptional. Monsters are so diverse and so much in much in number that I can write an entire section dedicated only about the monsters in the game.

I also had the pleasure of discovering something I have never discovered before (or shd i say avoided ) - multiplayer. This is the 1st game that i have played in muti player mode , since mostly i prefer only the single player side of things. The in game experience quadriples when you go to an hunt with a full team of 4 - something i enjoy very much to this day and always brings a smile to my face. I have been extremely lucky in becoming friends with exceptional group of players and to this day we hunt as team. And that list just keeps on growing.

The game is not without its fair share of issues. This is not a game known for graphical fidelity like many open world games, but still needs immense GPU power to play it smoothly. The online server disconnects, glitches like playes landing on impossible areas and not to mention the insane grind, in-order to get jewels, weapons and armor.

Despite this, the game is still extremely addictive. I have played close to 2650 hours - managed to learn and use (frequently) 7 diffrerent types of weapons and still play with my friends as much as possible. There are so many things I have missed to address. This is mainly due to the immense depth of MHW, the amount of layers the game has, that I find it next to impossible to explain each and every aspect of it. Not to mention the "events" which keeps on pulling players to the game as frequently as possible - hats of Capcom, you have created an absolute beast.

MHW - a game I never wanted to play and here I am, playing it almost every other day. The journey which commenced with me stepping into a world completely new, still continues and I am pretty much sure is gonna last for a long time. Quoting one of my friends - its that time of the day - time to bully the monsters.

Peace out.

AC Odyssey is a RPG developed and published by Ubisoft. It's completely different from earlier installment of AC games - since it ditches the stealth based mechanics and adopts the concept of an open-world .

Starting with the narrative set in the modern day, the game follows characters named Layla Hassan and her friend Victoria, who with the help of assassins, manage to find DNA of 2 "Misthios". Using the DNA of one of the misthios, they activate the "ANIMUS", in-order to find the location of the Staff of Hermes - there by kick starting the odyssey in Greece.

The game's historical story is set in Greece, a few hundred years before the events of Assassin's Creed Origins which was set in Egypt. AC odyssey time-line occurs during Peloponnesian War, which was fought between Sparta and Athens. The player takes on the role of a young misthios and can chose between Kassandra or Alexios. AC odyssey tells us the "greek tragedy" of the protagonist and how the character continues with his "journey" to find and mend his fractured family. .

PROS:
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- A visual masterpiece - The visual depiction of Greece in its full glory is unbelievable. Greece is split into multiple regions and each region looks breathtaking. The level of accuracy, attention to detail is second to none. I have spent countless hours, in awe, navigation through various areas just for the sake of exploration.

- Memorable Characters - Apart from the protagonist, there is a huge array of supporting cast, which are seen through out the game. Players encounter prominent personas, including Alkibiades, Brasidas, Kleon, Herodotos, Hippokrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Sokrates and many others. Not to mention the countless love interests protagonist has in this game. It looks like ubisoft wanted to get a step further than EA when it came to romantic interests.

- Combat - AC odyssey combat is different from its predecessors. It features an in-depth combat mechanic - which comprises of 3 major trees. Hunter (Ranged), Warrior (Melee) and Assassin (Stealth). There is another additional option named "Mastery" which is available to the player after a certain level. Mastery will help the player sharpen hunter, warrior & assassin skill trees further by increasing their stats. Players can build their characters the way they want. Last but definitely not least, NAVAL COMBAT, which is brings an additional dimension in combat.

- Weapons and Armor - AC Odyssey presents the user with insane amount of weapons and armor. The user has the option of collecting armor sets (which is bit of a grind) that boosts stats of the player in an unique way or mix n match with armor pieces. Weapons, like Armor, are divided into four types of rarity - Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary. This is a very broad topic to discuss and also depends on the play-style of the individual.

- Mythology - Greek mythology started as purely academic for me but I fell in love with the legends and the complex stories . The stories of Hercules, Troilus and Cressida, Hector, Ajax, Odysseus, Jason, Theseus, Paris, Agamemnon and many other larger than life characters, their amazing journeys,kept me hooked. Not to mention gods, their power struggle and their complex stories. I am not a greek history or mythology expert, my point of view is purely from a person who used to love these stories/characters as a kid and how the game reminded me that they are more than just stories and I was able to connect with it.

- Mercenary tree - Ubisoft has introduced something which can be related to "Nemesis" system in Middle earth Shadow of mordor. There will be mercenaries out to hunt the player, based on the notoriety the player has caused on a specific region. The more notoriety the player has created, the higher the bounty that will be placed on the player. Once the bounty is placed/accepted, the mercenary starts to track down the player. A maximum of five mercenaries can hunt a player at any time. Some of the best weapons in this game can be obtained from these mercenaries.

- Story - Greek mythology, with amazing characters, family conflict and many more aspects are wonderfully inter-woven and presented as a complete package. Not to mention, great side stories, which makes the game even more interesting. Player choice is worth the mention - as the story becomes distinctly different based on the choices that the player makes throughout the game. The story tends to get deviating at times, but at its core, it is an extremely competent narrative which is better than most of its predecessors - IMO.

- Open world - The open world which contains stunning Greek landscape, ranging from forests with predators/animals, to the caves, temples and tombs the player can explore, to the majestic white marble buildings in cities, finding artifacts and everything in between. The journey from one city to another, with dolphins and whales the player can view while travelling on sea - is amazing.An open world like no other. See it to believe it.

NEUTRAL:
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- Story creator - Story Creator Mode is a utility that allows an user to create customized missions. This mode allows you to select characters, tasks, areas & items that will be part of your mission. In addition, you can write your own dialogues to make your quests unique. I didn't use this feature at all, so i do not have an opinion on this.

NOT SO GOOD:
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- This game is long, i mean very very long and it took me 211 hours to finish the game - along with all DLC's and side quests. Ubisoft wanted this game to be "never ending" and I , for one, am not at all complaining. But there is a good chance that some people may find this a little frustrating or off-putting - since it can tend to get repetitive.

- "Siege / conquest battles" or battle in general will fail to provide any sort of challenge and will tend to "look" the same - when the player reaches a certain level - even at extreme difficulty. Plus, the player becomes a "demi-god" who deals insane levels of damage, at some point of time in the game, which makes most battles trivial. These things can be a bit off-putting to many players.

♥♥♥♥:
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- One of the things which bothered me is that the game doesnt "conclude" on completing the vanilla variant of the game. The "real" ending can only be accomplished by playing a dlc called "The Fate of Atlantis" - which the user needs to buy additionally. This should not have been the case and Ubisoft has a set a very bad trend by making the user pay more so as to finish the game.

-Micro transactions - Micro transaction shop uses Helix Credits, which are bought with real-world cash or Ubisoft Club points - to obtain many gear sets(which are not available in game) and cosmetics (especially skins).Ubisoft also introduces a way to "help players save time" - a pay to win method of gaining experience quickly, since the game is bit of a grind. Let me be honest in saying most of the resources needed to upgrade/progress are available in-game and you would need to grind to get it. The grind not impossible or even extreme, but is one hell of a grind nonetheless. The grind can get to some players and ubisoft providing this "optional" method of quickening player experience can entice a lot of players into buying them. It looks like they created this "problem" to sell you the solution. A horrible practice IMO - Malaka.

CONCLUSION:
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Is this the best AC game? It's subjective. I have only played AC1 and the exceptional AC Black Flag - which puts me in the casual category. Personally, for me, AC Odyssey is a tie with Black Flag. A beautifully crafted Greek world, great story,amazing open world, with countless hours of fun, with un-forgetable characters, mixed with greek mythos - in-short an exceptional RPG experience, despite the "Not so good" & "♥♥♥♥" mentioned above. To the AC casuals like me, I would say, go for it and you will have an unforgettable experience.

My first ever post in steam , not surprisingly a game review, is about Jedi Fallen Order. Bear with me, if it is a tad too long.

Old school Bioware - a company who has given us unforgettable childhood memories with exceptional games. Games, or should i say experiences, which emphasized on rich, unparalleled & mesmerizing stories, memorable characters and countless hours of fun, not to forget their re-playability.

New School Bioware under EA, IMO, has managed to gather a lot of ill will from us fans, due to their focus on live service games and especially pay to win micro-transactions (calling them surprise mechanics doesn't help either). Especially games like Star wars battle front 2 , which was designed around pay to win and not to mention their infamous "pride and accomplishment" quote. Being a huge old school Bioware fan, i had completely lost all hope in "new" Bioware. Adding insult to injury , the disastrous new star wars movies and EA/Bioware not releasing good star wars games since KOTOR was even more of concern when Jedi: Fallen Order was announced.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - showed promise when it launched - the main attraction being, it was developed by Respawn Entertainment - a beloved studio who had given us the amazing Titanfall series. I still remember EA promoting the game as SP experience with absolutely no MTX - a trend only EA can set. Even this did not prompt me to buy the game, until 8 months later, one of my buddies asked me to try it out. The game was on offer on steam and even though i was not at all confident, decided to give it a shot, the only glimmer of hope being Respawn.

Boy oh Boy, Respawn didn't disappoint and what a blast i had with this game.

Jedi: Fallen Order is an action adventure game set five years after the fall of the "Republic". The game follows the story of young Jedi Padawan, Cal Kestis, who is trying to rebuild the Jedi order, which was destroyed/purged as an after-math of order 66. Lemme stop here as far as story is concerned. The narrative, the game play , the characters were reminiscent of old school Bioware. I need to give a shout out to the level design /locations / planets in the game - it is unique and breathtaking . I spent quite a bit exploring and thoroughly enjoyed the visuals. The puzzles in the game are so clever , set with the right level of difficulty, that it gives great satisfaction when you solve them . The character development was also top notch and the way Cal kestis develops by the end of the game is truly amazing. Not to forget the brilliant combat mechanics - light sabre , coupled with Force powers, both of which the character develops through out the game. Light sabre attacks mixed with force powers , plus parry & dodge , especially on boss fights, makes you feel like a true jedi master. The game is neither too long nor too short and i was able to wrap it up in 30 hours. Pro tip: play as "Jedi Grandmaster" for the most fun experience - it will kick your proverbial back side :)

Of course the game is not without its fair share of issues. The main issues were key controls, since i am predominantly a keyboard + mouse player. It felt clunky in quite a few places, especially with respect to movement and camera. Also interaction with certain objects, like dropping items becomes problematic, when default controls are changed. Apart from this I was unable to find any major issues, since i play at a time where the game is heavily patched and is quite stable.

To conclude, is this the best star wars game ? - No , not by a long shot. But it is the best star wars game in recent times. Congratulations Respawn - you have done an amazing job with this IP. You have rekindled my love for star wars (to a certain extent). For people like me, who are in 2 minds or still contemplating to buy this game, i would say - Go for it , there is a very high chance it may not disappoint you.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU.