Confessions of a gamer

Whenever I play PvP in games like Gears of War or Destiny I'm quickly reminded why I don't like PvP in these games. It's not because I suck at PvP, but it's the part where every loser that is just as bad as me or even worse runs around with a shotgun for the one shot kill. This is so cheap and somehow this can't be fixed, what's even worse is that it can be quite effective as well. So this means more and more people use this cheap trick and after some time it's just shotgun vs shotgun in PvP. Why even put other weapons in PvP? Apparently a shotgun is all everyone uses, oh and heavy weapons of course. I mean you can't expect people to pass on another way to get a one shot kill. Why do people use cheap tricks to win? The answer is in the question, it's because they want to win and that makes sense in a way. But how people feel good about that victory is a mystery to me. Because if I won a match because I kept using a cheap tactic like the shotgun o...

It seems that these days more and more people prefer to play online with eachother, so the (offline) single player is less and less attractive. At least that's the idea I'm getting here, because in more and more games you don't see a single player anymore or only a multiplayer campaign. I guess it's assumed that everyone plays with other people, but is that really true? People always play with their friends? You might think that but that's not true, because that means that whenever you're online they're online as well. I don't even think that's possible. Some games don't support multiplayer so if you're in the campaign it means you'll have to play on your own and your friends can't join you. Is that really so bad? I guess for some people it is, but to shove the online multiplayer campaign in all our faces is just lame. Because I don't always want to play with other people, sometimes it's nice to just play in your own way w...

For a lot of people Assassin's Creed 3 was the end of the good AC games, because Ezio was gone and now you played as Connor and a lot of fans aren't really a fan of Connor. But what really bothers some people is  that you don't start playing as Connor but as Haytham Kenway (I'll try to keep the spoilers out as much as possible). Some people feel like they've been deceived and others just found another reason to hate a popular game. But is Assassin's Creed 3 really a bad game or is it actually a lot of fun? I will talk about some parts in the story so if you haven't played the game yet then you might be wise not to read further! Sins of the father. You start as Haytham Kenway and you travel from good old England to the colonies (later known as the USA), here you start recruiting and form your own group. But what are they doing? Well I won't spoil that for you, in case you are still reading and haven't played the game, but let's just say that t...

When you play with other people, usually people you don't know, then there's a chance you'll meet a snob. What is a snob that you encounter in a game? It's someone that doesn't want to play games with you because he or she thinks he's/she's better than you or thinks you're not good enough to play with him or her. This has usually something to do with your level in a game or in some games people also look at k/d ratio to judge you. But is this fair? Not everyone that rejects you is a snob? There's a good chance that a clan or team doesn't want to play with you because of your level or k/d ratio, of course it's their decision to make and it's easy to call them snobs. But when you want to join a clan or team then there's a chance that they only allow people to join of a certain skill level or people with experience. Having a low level can be a good sign that you don't have a lot of experience in a game and a low k/d ratio can poi...

This is rough news for people that still play games on their Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 and want to play Black Ops 3 campaign. I know that a lot of people don't care about the campaign but this is clearly a sign that the end is nigh for the last gen consoles, games become too fast and too complex for the last gen consoles and that means either upgrade to the current gen (PS4 and/or Xbox One) or get left behind. It's rough but that's how it goes with consoles. Should you care about the campaign? If you're someone that never plays the campaign and you don't care about the campaign then you should be ok, because multiplayer and zombies mode are available and that's usually what most people play anyway. But the campaign in Black Ops 3 does look cool, some high tech story with the rise of machines (perhaps some type of Terminator movie influence). If that's not enough then it's cool that you can now play the campaign with three of your friends, which usua...

It's something you see in almost every Halo, CoD and perhaps even Battlefield video on youtube, people that want the old style back. What is the old style? Games with no high jumps, wallrunning, special powers (for example an ability you can activate that will annihilate other people in the game) and no evading dash. Sure that seems sweet but that does set us all back five to ten years, the question is do we all really want that? Things are going too fast? Maybe I'm getting old but I have noticed how some games decide the fate of someone in an ecounter within a second, so you can hardly blink and you're already dead! This makes it difficult for people who have less skill or trouble with keeping up to play such fast games. Which means that some of those people will resort to camping or play the older first person shooters without all the fast gameplay. Personally I don't mind how things are going, Black Ops 3 is looking good and when I played it in the Beta I was hav...

Looking at the trailers, the cinematics and the gameplay trailers you'll have to admit that it looks good. Sure some haters will give this game crap but what would you expect from people who behave  like that? What surprises me is that some of these haters claim to be Halo fans, they keep talking about how great the first trilogy is and how bad Halo 4 is and how bad Halo 5 will be. Which is impressive since Halo 5 hasn't released yet and somehow people can already judge the game, I guess that says enough about the haters. You're not alone in Halo 5? Nope, you have a team and other players can play as members of that team. Which means it's no longer a solo adventure, I guess some people don't like that and with no splitscreen mode it also makes it harder for some people to play together (assuming that your friend doesn't have the game or Xbox One). I must admit that I wish there would be a splitscreen mode in Halo 5 but the four player co-op can definitely gi...

After all the praise I think it's time to be honest with Destiny the Taken King, let me first say that I like the game and it really offers new and returning players a lot of gameplay. But some of the old Destiny issues are still in this game or have returned in this game. It doesn't ruin the game but it does create frustration when it would be so easy to avoid that by leaving certain things out and fixing other things. I'll give you some examples. Disconnect issues. When I first started playing Destiny I had no issues, but then after the first update I would get disconnected at least once a day. I don't think I have to mention how annoying that is, but somehow that was fixed months later. So everything is good now? No it's not! The disconnect issues are back in Destiny the Taken King and once more I get disconnected at least once a day, it's like I'm back in 2014 and go through that nonsense all over again. The worst thing is when this happens when you ...

I really hate it when in a game you're (almost) forced to play with other people, for example if you want a certain reward or want to make progress in the game then you have to do a mission or something similiar and play with other people. It's slowly creeping in the single player experience and you also see more and more multiplayer modes added to single player games, not something everyone is happy with! What's wrong with playing with other people? Nothing, but I don't like it when it's required to advance in a game or get the rewards (for example achievements/trophies or cool items in the game). It seems interesting playing with other people but unfortunately it's not always that much fun, especially when you don't want to play with other people. So you might say that you just play a game where you have only single player, but these games are disappearing and the online version of "single" player games often hint towards playing with others ...

When I first saw this game I couldn't help but think that the developers were trying to make a quick buck with a sexy vampire slasher game. Well it seems that I was wrong, because BloodRayne is actually a lot of fun! Just see yourself as the person that kills one Nazi at a time with two deadly blades attached to your arms. I mean how can that not be fun? Sure the graphics aren't the best and the story isn't amazing, but for just pure fun you've come to the right game! Not a vampire? So let me first say that Rayne isn't even a vampire, she's a dhampir (I think that's something like a half vampire as in one of the parents was a vampire, of course I could be wrong because I don't really know much about the whole vampire mythology) and is trained to kill supernatural enemies. Well a Nazi isn't supernatural but something weird is going on in Germany, you see some weird creatures take over the body of a human and they seem to be running the shots at so...

If there's one thing I hate it's not finishing a game, it really bothers me if there is a game I bought and I never finished it. Sometimes it's almost like the game is staring and laughing at me for not finishing it, ok that's crazy talk but seriously it just feels wrong not to finish a game in my eyes. Unless I truly hate the game and have no desire to waste more time on that, otherwise I'll just quickly finish a game and then get rid of it if I didn't like it that much. Do you ever have that feeling like you have to finish a game? Perhaps you don't care if you finish a game or not, but it might also be that you want to complete (as in get all achievements/trophies in a game) every game you play. That's even more extreme and I'm glad I don't have that need, because beating some games can be frustrating enough! Are you lazy for not beating a game? I don't think so, because sometimes you're just busy and don't have the time to fini...

It seems silly but this is a problem for some people, when there are several games out there that you want to play but you can't play them all. Sometimes that's because you don't have enough money to buy all the games you like and sometimes it's because you don't have time for that. School and work can really mess up your game sessions and it's rough to turn off your console or PC after an hour or two to go back to studying or back to work. it's easy to say that you just quit your job or stop with your study, but that will bite you in the ass sooner or later. So what else can you do? Well let's find out... You don't have enough money to buy more games? That's rough, I've been there when I really wanted to buy a game but I didn't have the money for it. If you have generous parents that can also spare the money then they might buy a game for you (but with the high prices, for some games, it's not likely that this will happen often)....

I've said it so many times but I was actually surprised yesterday when I was playing a game and I suddenly discovered I was having fun. It sounds probably stupid but with all these interesting games coming out and not enough time to play them all it sometimes means you have to rush through a game. That's usually not fun, unless you're the speedrunner (rushing through a game as fast as you can) type that enjoys that way of playing. But if you take a moment and just relax you can really enjoy playing a game, those other games will just have to wait! Games aren't meant to be rushed? Well speedrunners might disagree but I think games are meant to be enjoyed, so if you enjoy rushing through it then so be it. But I prefer to take it slow, enjoy what's going on around me and explore the game. That way you can discover so many things and have fun with even the little things in a game. If you rush through a game you'll miss half of the things the developers put in a ...

The last good Final Fantasy game is Final Fantasy X, at least that's how I see it. I don't enjoy the mmorpg FF games (which means FF XI and XIV) and Final Fantasy XII and XIII were by far not as much fun as Final Fantasy X and the FF games before that. With Final Fantasy XII being the FF game with no fun or humour in it at all. So what does that mean for Final Fantasy XV? Will this be the game that calls back the FF veterans or is this going to be just another FF game that will be another nail in the coffin of Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy XV is ambitious? Thanks to the next gen (which is now already called current gen) technology things have improved and the graphics look once more fantastic, something you'd expect in a Final Fantasy game. But pretty graphics alone won't lure me back into another Final Fantasy game! You need a good story, interesting characters, enjoyable dialogue and communication between the characters, a good battle system and of course fun in a ...

I played Destiny from day one and stayed loyal for as long as possible, of course I took several breaks (which is only natural because I don't think many people can play the same game for an entire year every day) and there were moments I wasn't happy with the game. But now with the Taken King it seems that Destiny is making a big step forward, let's see how big that step is! Everything is different? If you downloaded the 2.0 update then you saved yourself some time with the installation of the Taken King and you already knew some of the new features in the game. The quests and bounties are now in a different menu and you can even track them, what's probably even better is that you can claim a bounty (after you completed it) from that same menu and you don't have to return to the tower. But also a lot of places have changed, well not actual changes as the tower looks different but the roles of characters seem to be a bit different. You now get missions from the ...

I think we've all done it at one point or the other, killing a friendly or neutral character in a game. For some that's an accident, for example friendly fire or slashing a bit to wildly with your melee attacks, but for others it's just a way to keep the game interesting. Eventhough I do get the idea that some people are just scumbags that like to kill friendly characters in a game, why? Because they can! Killing a friendly character doesn't make you a bad person? It would be a bit extreme to say it would make you a bad person, as I mentioned before it's sometimes an accident that you hit a friendly and sometimes characters in a game respond violently against that. For example in the Elder Scrolls Oblivion you can easily hit an ally (for example a guard) in a melee fight and that is often enough to make them mad and go after you as well. You can try an pay off the fine, run away or surrender and hope that this will be enough for them to back off. Unfortunately t...

As you probably know I usually talk about older games, but with the Taken King expansion launching tomorrow I can't help but look back at the game that was the best for some people and the worst for others. Perhaps we find the truth somewhere in the middle? Story? The story in Destiny is bad, it's as simple as that. The cutscenes are sometimes weird and don't always make sense, especially the dialogue is odd at times and it kind of gives me the impression that things were cut out of the game. Apparently there is truth to that because Bungie had to change the story, a lawsuit and all that type of nonsense, and I think the game suffered under that and not just because it was released a year later. But the thing about Destiny is that most people don't play it for the story, it's for the discovery or collecting of new items and some also just like to spend time with friends in a game and play together. Destiny is a good place for that! Class and role. What's...

It seems easy to make a game, but then once you try something it turns out that it's not so easy. There are people that made something incredible, but usually it takes a whole lot of people together to make something. This can lead to something great or something not so great, especially with the last result you have to wonder if they're deliberately sabotaging their own game or that they're just lazy. Games become repetitive? That's a danger, seeing a game series turn into repetitive nonsense that's just not worth playing anymore. So as a developer you have to stay fresh and creative, but at the same time gamers there are gamers that hate change and want things to stay the same. You could say if developers would listen only to gamers that it would lead to some weird and unplayable games. Because one person wants this and the other person wants that, you can't make everyone happy and that means doing what they think is best. But is that always the best for a...

Do you remember the rise of dlc? I can't even remember when they first started with that but I do know when I first bought dlc, it was for the game Mass Effect and I did that because I love the characters and I didn't want it to end so with dlc I hoped that it would make things last a bit longer and in a way it did. But as you know not every piece of dlc is good, sometimes it's just bad or something that should've been in the game from the start. So the question is, do we really want dlc or is it something that should be in the game already? Dlc adds something extra to the game? Of course it does, but what does it add exactly? Well that is a bit more difficult to explain because not every piece of dlc is the same, because sometimes it just a bit of extra multiplayer stuff (maps, characters, weapons) and then there is dlc that adds new stories and adventures for you to play. So depending on which game the dlc can be interesting, but there's also a chance that it...

At this point a lot of people must have heard about the game Until Dawn, a Playstation 4 exclusive horror game that puts you in control of several characters that can all die in this game. You decide their fate with the choices you make, so if you make a bad choice your character will die and that will affect the story. This makes things a lot more interesting and at the same time scary! But is this game really what (survival) horror gamers are looking for? Just one of the guys/gals. In this game you play as almost all characters you meet and see, at least at one point in the game, which gives you a unique perspective from their point of view. What is interesting is that each character will be in a dangerous situation where he or she could potentially die, which means that there is no relaxing if you play as a certain character and also no guarantee to survive if you play as one of the characters that is voiced by a well known actor. This keeps the game scary because every soun...

Let me first say that I enjoy playing Metal Gear Solid V, I have a lot of fun with the freedom I have in the side ops and that I can play the way I want to play without being forced into situations I'm not comfortable with. For example that you have to use a certain weapon or you're stuck with a buddy you don't like. Ok some story missions are a bit lame, in my opinion, but looking at the big picture it's a fun game to play. But then there's online mode, that's where things go bad... What's wrong with the online mode? One of the first things I noticed is that the loading screens are longer, which is annoying and that alone would already be a reason why I would prefer the offline mode. But there's more! After mission 22, no spoilers, you can create FOBs (forward operating bases) and the game forces you into this the next time you open your idroid. Just so you know, you can't travel to another place or do much without opening your idroid so you...

It's silly but I've wondered how (sexy) women can influence a person to buy a game or not, because it's not surprising to see a woman in a sexy outfit on the cover of a game or slapped on advertisement for a game. So apparently some people think that sexy women sell games, this is even a thing at the E3 where women dressed up in certain outfits are there to promote certain games. You could say that some people are interested in the game, but to be honest a lot of people also like to hang around with attractive women that would normally not give them a second of their time. Is it bad for games that women are used to help them sell games or is this something that doesn't really matter? There's nothing wrong with putting a (sexy) woman on the cover of a game? Not really, eventhough in some cases it doesn't make a lot of sense. For example with Guild Wars (and the Guild Wars expansions) you would often find an attractive woman on the cover of that game and the e...

If there's one thing I hate in a game it's a set up, the type where you can't win and almost always will lose the first time you play it. Of course it's under the idea that you can make it but somehow by some magic bullshit you lose, things don't go the way you want it to and you get screwed over! Maybe I sound a bit like a conspiracy theorist but in truth some games just have moments where things go horribly wrong and you often fail at those moments or is it just me? The boss that can't be beaten? A boss fight can be interesting, unless it's a boss with only one weakness and it takes you several attempts to discover it. Maybe some people like that, I don't like that! I mean going through the same cutscenes and the same nonsense over and over again gets old real fast. No matter how much fun a game is, when you keep dying because some asshole is immune to almost every attack then that's a game you don't enjoy for long unless you manage to beat...

I'm staying in the Metal Gear Solid area with this strange MGS game. Why is it strange? Well things are a bit different in this game, maybe this is a spoiler for some of you but since the game launched in 2001 I'm just going to assume you've played this game. If you haven't played this game and you don't want to read any spoilers then this is the point where you stop reading! Snake? So the biggest surprise in this game is that you don't play as Snake, well there's that first part of the game on the ship but that's quite short compared to the rest. Eventhough the other character first uses the name Snake you can hear and already kind of see that he's not Solid Snake. This is confirmed when a few minutes after taking control of the character he takes off his mask. You play as Raiden, a new character in the MGS series, and have to complete your mission. What is your mission? Infiltrate an oil rig and rescue hostages, one of those hostages is the P.O...

The worst type of camper is the spawn camper, this is a sad sack of shit that camps near the spawn of the other team or even in deathmatch they hang around spawn locations to get quick and easy kills. It's people like spawn campers that ruin the fun multiplayer in first person and third person shooters, because with their sad tactics it's not a match but just mindless gameplay that you don't want to take part in. Why so much hate for spawn campers? First of all it's not just spawn campers, it's campers in general that ruin multiplayer in my opinion. For example in CoD Advanced Warfare and even in the Black Ops 3 beta people would camp, with all the fancy movement abilities and yet people would still sit in a corner and camp. Honestly, how can you not dislike people like that? Not only are you a sad sack of shit, you're also a boring asshole that sucks out the fun in a match and probably get rewarded for it. Spawn campers are the worst because they often get ...

If there's one thing I hate in a game it's doing the same thing twice, so it's good if a game has checkpoints. This keeps you from doing same thing over and over again when things go wrong, especially when you play a game for the first time you'll make mistakes that are sometimes fatal. The last thing you want is to start over, do everything again and you lost several hours of your life for nothing. That's rough, which is exactly why I avoid games that have no decent checkpoint system. Good checkpoints make a game better? Maybe better isn't the right word, I'd say more enjoyable and playable. Because if you have to start all over and do the two hour mission again from the start then that's extremely frustrating and it wouldn't surprise me that you'd want to get rid of that game as soon as possible. You need good checkpoints, which means once every ten to fifteen minutes in the game, to keep the frustrating low when you die and to keep you mot...

In the old NES games a boss was a way of showing you the end of a level and it was your final obstacle to beat that level, it would often require you to combine what you learned and what you can do to beat him or her. There are the typical repeating pattern bosses and the weak spot (often a spot that glows) bosses that don't pose much of a threat, but later developers created smarter bosses that changed their tactics and would learn from their mistakes. For example Mister Freeze in Batman Arkham City is a good example of that. But do we still need bosses in games? Let's find out! Bosses don't appear at the end of a level anymore? In the Megaman days it was easy, well not the bosses but where you would find them, you enter a level and at the end you would face the boss of that level. When you beat the boss you get a new power and that would help you make progress in the game and beat other bosses. But now a boss can appear in the middle of a level and sometimes at the st...

I must admit that after Metal Gear Solid IV I didn't expect that there would be another MGS game, why? Well Metal Gear Solid IV kind of sums up all the loose ends and ties it together into a satisfying (long) ending. But then there's Metal Gear Solid V, the announcement suprised me and yet at the same time it made me super excited about the game. Especially when I heard that you play as Big Boss, the main character from one of my favourite games Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Rough start. You begin in a hospital bed, I won't spoil what happened but if you played Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes then you should know what happened, and things are a bit weird. You see the game in first person perspective and that's quite strange for a MGS game, what's even weirder is that they let you make some choices that didn't make sense at the time to me. I also won't spoil what happens next but I'm extra surprised that this prologue was so big, usually a prolog...

I'm not trying to sound like some spoiled douchebag, this isn't about me wanting to all the games. This is about pre-ordering a collector's edition of Metal Gear Solid V several months ago and then a couple of days before the launch date I get a mail that they can't deliver and that my game is being cancelled. I don't think I have to mention how much that sucks and how difficult it was to find a place where they would sell Metal Gear Solid V (a lot of places were already sold out) and not pay a fortune extra. But apparently this happens, you want something and you're ready to pay for something and yet at the last moment that can be taken from you as if it's nothing. That's actually cruel, very cruel... Why is it so cruel? Because I've been looking forward to play Metal Gear Solid V for more than two years and the moment I saw the collector's edition I knew that this is what I want. The cool red cyber arm of Big Boss and all the other extra st...

With all the big titles launching you'd almost forget about the less familiar titles, eventhough Don't starve definitely has some fans and you can watch a lot of videos of the game on youtube. Xbox One players finally get the chance to play this game as well on the console so if you're curious about this game then feel free to read some more But how much fun is this game actually? Let's find out! Who are you and what do you do? That's simple, you play as Wilson (a scientist) and you try to survive. But that wouldn't do the game justice to just leave it at that, especially when you look at all the possibilities and chance you get in this game to make it a cool adventure. The danger of the game doesn't always present itself during the day, it's the nights you have to be careful of because that's when the monsters can get you when you're in the dark without light so you better make a campfire or have a torch on you! You also need to eat, if you ...