Confessions of a gamer

It's the final day of the year, in case you haven't heard all the idiots wasting a lot of money on their firework hobby. But this isn't about making fun of people that waste money on something stupid, no this is about the best game of 2015 and this year had several interesting contestors! So how to pick a winner from all that? Well let's take a closer look to games I think are pretty good and worthy of the title of best game of the year! Yes this isn't anything official, in case you hadn't figured that out, just which game I think is the best game of 2015. My favourite games of 2015. 1. Metal Gear Solid V: the Phantom Pain. Do I even need to explain why this game is a candidate for game of the year? This game has an amazing story, eventhough somewhere in the middle it kind of goes slow and weird for a moment, but the ending is definitely memorable. But also the gameplay and freedom in this game are incredible, play the game the way you want to play it and ...

Now that we're at the end of 2015 it makes sense to look back at the year and when you look back you also think about what you regret. When it comes to games it's not always easy to admit that you regret buying a game, especially when it's a popular game or a game that you first had high hopes for. But unfortunately games aren't always as good as you hope they will be. Here is my top 3! 1. Batman Arkham Knight. I was really looking forward to this game, the graphics look good and the characters look amazing. How could this game disappoint me after two succesful games before Arkham Knight? Well it's possible and I figured that out pretty quickly. At first I was ok with the game but then the Batmobile started playing a bigger role and I got annoyed with that pretty quickly, then there's the moment where you meet the allies of Batman and they become playable, only in that area, but it's by far not as good as it was in Arkham City. What I probably regret t...

Have you ever picked up an old game or plugged in an old console and played some games on that console? It might seem weird but just because games are old doesn't mean that they're bad. Sure the graphics probably look like shit, compared to graphics in games these days, but the game itself is probably still fun to play. It also depends how far back you go, because if the game is about five years old then things don't have to be so different but if you play a game from more than twenty years ago then you'll notice how much things have changed! There's nothing wrong with old games? Well some older games might have some issues but usually old games are still games that are fun to play, at least if you can deal with the graphics, controls and music of that time. I know that some people love playing old games, these retro gamers collect old consoles and games for those consoles. Some also have the old computers and also have some of the old games that came along with...

I already talked about some games of 2015, but I wanted to talk in general about the whole year because a lot happened in 2015 and not all of it was good. I think even hardcore gamers, as in spend a lot of time behind your computer and/or console, noticed how fucked up 2015 was. Terrorist attacks and the whole immigrant disaster are probably the two biggest problems we had in 2015 but there's more. For example an idiot that might actually become the president of the United States, do you know who I'm talking about? Then there is a global problem which is climate change, I know some people don't believe in that but it's warm outside here right now and we're at the end of December. I don't think that's ever happened here before. Then there ar floods in one country, starvation in another, twisters wrecking towns and fires that scorch the Earth. It's almost as if predictions from the Bible are happening right here and now. Well maybe that's a bit extreme...

We all have our own reasons to play games, but I think that most people play games for fun. But not everyone plays for fun or just for fun, some people also play games for glory. It's good when you have fun but isn't it better when you can also accomplish some amazing things while having fun? The problem is that sometimes when things don't go your way the quest for glory can turn you sour and then you don't have a lot of fun playing games, so in my opinion it's probably smarter to stick to just having fun! Why would you play for glory? There are several reasons why you would play for glory, the most obvious answer would be that you play games for glory because you like to win and get things done. You want to be the star in your team or when you play solo do some amazing things that makes you feel good about yourself. Another good reason is when you upload your videos online, you want to get amazing footage to show to your friends and other viewers. It's nice...

When it comes to movies then it's a sensitive subject because a lot of fans don't like it when some Hollywood douchebag wants to mess with their beloved movie. But what about games? Are we happy when an old game gets a remake or do we prefer to keep things as they are? We want remakes? I think you can say that when you look at Final Fantasy VII, so many people were asking for a remake and finally after many year there is a remake coming! I guess you could say that the fans wanted it so eventually they got one, well it still has to come out but at least it's coming. The same can be said about the Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time, we've seen several remastered versions but a lot of fans would like to see a remake of this almost legendary game. Sooner or later we might actually see it, but nothing is certain in the world of games because you don't always get what you want and sometimes you get things you don't want! We don't want remakes? Just look ...

How is your Christmas? A big family tradition or just you playing games on your own? I guess there are a lot of other options in the middle but it's at least an interesting time for gamers, because there are usually some good deals for games and perhaps even some interesting prices for consoles. Of course you could sing songs or watch the same old lame movies on tv, but you can also play games and have a blast! Family and friends or games? There's nothing wrong with spending time with family and friends, but sometimes you just want to play some games. Besides you can also play games with family and friends, so why not combine it? Eventhough you might have to convince some older relatives of the fun you can have with games, but we were all young at some point so I doubt that people forgot how to have fun! If you do have a family that insists that you're at the dinner table and not playing games all day then you could do your one good deed for the year and be there, besid...

Lately I've been having this weird feeling that I spend too much time on one or two games and ignore other games, eventhough it's true that I play Rainbow Six Siege a lot at this time it doesn't mean that I don't want to play other games. It'sjust difficult for me to adjust to another game when I'm used to the controls of one game. What's worse is that once I'm getting better with one game I don't want to switch to another game, because then I get worse and the next time I play it I'll have to start over with getting better with that game. Maybe it seems silly to you but this usually keeps me stuck to one or two games a lot longer than I used to. Because a couple of years ago I'd spend about one maybe two weeks max on one game and then move on to the next, but now I see myself spending a month or even more on a game. Which is nice, I mean having so much fun with a game is great and it saves me the trouble (and money) of buying a new game to k...

This week I heard one of the weirdest things, people that play games to become (more) popular. What a difference with twenty years ago when people didn't even admit that they play games because they thought that this would make them less popular or that they would be bullied because of their hobby. Apparently these days gaming is so popular that people play them hoping to become more popular, eventhough I still find it hard to believe that people actually do that! How do you become more popular when you play games? Well it's not just playing games, from what I heard it's some people with streams on Twitch (under the name of games or them playing games) but in truth it's mostly about them. Not that there is anything wrong with telling something about yourself or showing the viewers a bit of what you do or what you like but if 80% or 90% of the stream is about you then I find it weird that you would call yourself a gamer and put up a stream that is supposedly about...

It's not always a guarantee for succes when you buy a game, sure you can do a lot of research and try to get as much information before you buy a game but sometimes some bad or weird games slip through the cracks. When a game is bad then you know how to deal with that, you try to trade it in a shop for another game (if that's even possible), you can give it to a friend or you sell it and buy another game. But what if a game is weird? It's not really a bad game but it just doesn't make any sense to you, what do you do then? What is a weird game? I guess I should first explain that, because what one person might find weird the other might not find that weird. Weird games are games that are out of your comfort zone, have strange controls and/or have a story that makes no sense to you. Maybe some of you don't see a problem with this but if a game makes you uncomfortable, the controls are difficult for you to master and the story makes no sense to you then that's...

It's the first day of Winter and Christmas is also in this week, so what game can combine these those things? Well there might be more games than I can think of but right now the Sims 3 is really jumping into my mind. It will take the seasons dlc to actually get the Christmas feeling in your Sims 3 game but then you're ready for anything! But how good is the Sims 3 and is it worth trading in the Sims 2 for? The Sims 2 is better? This might surprise you but some people actually prefer the Sims 2 over the Sims 3, I guess they invested a lot in the Sims 2 so it makes sense that they don't want to start over with the Sims 3. But in all honesty I do think that the Sims 3 is better because the dlc might be pretty much the same it does look better in the Sims 3. But if your happy with the Sims 2 and see no reason to upgrade to the Sims 3 or 4 for that matter then you can always stick with the Sims 2 until you do want to move on to the next Sims game. The Sims 3, bigger and b...

Games like Halo and Rainbow Six let you kill your team mates, not that you really help your team or yourself with that but it happens more often than you would think. In my first Rainbow Six Siege multiplayer match I was in a team full of team killers, it's quite annoying and there isn't much you can do about it. Sure you can try to vote someone out of the team but that requires multiple votes and if people don't vote then that doesn't help you much. So how do you get rid off team killers? Give the victim the choice to kick a team killer? I think it would be a good idea to let the victim of team killing decide the fate of the team killer, instead of getting a vote system where the majority has to vote against the team killer to get him or her out of a team. It could be an accident, so if the person who killed someone else on the team by accident then he or she could explain himself or herself. Especially in a game like Rainbow Six Siege you would want to be plugg...

Maybe you're not really an achievement or trophy hunter but it still sucks when it doesn't unlock when you should've gotten it. Sometimes the achievement/trophy is stuck in some kind of limbo zone, then the achievement/trophy is busy unlocking (a message says so on the achievement/trophy) but somehow it doesn't happen. So what do you do? Help, what do I do when my achievements/trophies aren't unlocking? You can always try the classic trick of turning your console off and then on again, hopefully that fixes it but unfortunately that's not the big answer for every issue. Sometimes you need to contact Microsoft or Sony but they can't do much for you either, some will try to give you some tips of removing your profile from your console and then install it again. Sometimes this works but achievements/trophies can be nasty assholes and that sometimes means that it still won't unlock. The worst part is when the achievement/trophy is unlocked on your screen ...

Well we're not exactly in 2016 just yet but I can't help but look back at 2015 already and I must admit that 2015 is an amazing year for gamers. I don't think I've ever bought so many games in one year and enjoyed playing most of them. Especially in Fall I had a blast with a lot of games that came out and I really hope that 2016 will have more of these great moments! A rough start of 2015? I was careful early 2015 because I didn't want to spend too much money on games I might not like as much and save my money for the big titles that would come out later that year. But I did check out some of the titles, for example Evolve and Dying Light. Evolve looked like a fantastic game and in a way it is, the problem is that if you play it on your own you get tired of it pretty quickly. I guess that's why a lot of gamers dropped the game after a month (I was done with it after a week). It's not that it's a bad game but how many times can you do the same thing w...

There are several points of view on the topic of social gamers, because some people think that gamers are sad people sitting all day in their room playing with themself (on a computer/console, just to be clear) and then there are people that say that gamers are actually quite social and have a lot of friends online. So what's true and what's false? Well let's figure it out! The stereotype gamer isn't real? Just look online for stereotype gamer and you'll see the pictures of what some people think gamers look like. I don't think I have to mention that this is often just a load of bollocks! There are a lot of gamers, just check some game related videos on youtube, that look nothing like this stereotype gamer. Some people say that people that look good aren't real gamers, as if you can't look good and enjoy playing games. I mean honestly people is that how it is now? Just because there is a stereotype for gamers out there does that truly mean that every...

Black Ops 3 is probably one of the most popular games of 2015 and it wouldn't suprise me if it's the best selling game of 2015. A lot of CoD fans are happy with Black Ops 3 and the game also got some positive reviews, so what is there left to improve? Well there's always room for improvement and so Black Ops 3 is even better now! Scorestreaks are more powerful now? This was one of the biggest complaints in multiplayer, scorestreaks were either weak (as in they didn't do enough damage) or they could be destroyed way too fast. Now most scorestreaks have gotten a buff and can take a bit more damage and the easiest scorestreak to get (the HC-XD) is now more powerful and flak jacket won't be that helpful to survive the blast (as long as you explode the remote car right next to the legs of your target). It will now also take extra rocket hits to take down the bigger scorestreaks like the R.A.P.S. deployship or the Mothership. Another scorestreak that got a boost is th...

Sometimes when a weapon gets nerfed in a game I see a lot of hateful comments, people can't or don't want to understand why this weapon is now nerfed. Some people complain and others even make threats, often these are just sad sacks of shit that have nothing better to do with their life but it does raise a question. Why do weapons need to be balanced in a FPS? Weapon balance makes the game more fun? Let's say that there is one weapon in a game that is much better than all other weapons, then you can bet your ass that more than 90% of all players will be using that weapon in online multiplayer. Maybe you don't see the problem with that but it's boring when everyone uses the same weapon. So weapon balance keeps things interesting, people will try other weapons and that keeps things a bit different and you constantly have to be on the lookout of what other players are using. For example someone that uses a sniper rifle requires a different tactic of taking down tha...

Max Payne is one of those games you probably heard of but if you ask people if they actually played it then it wouldn't suprise me that a lot of people will say that they haven't played it. It was the same for me, I heard about the Max Payne games but never played one of them, until Max Payne 3 came out on the Xbox 360, I gave it a chance and had a lot of fun playing this game! Max against the rest! Max Payne has a talent for making people mad, so it probably won't suprise you that in Max Payne 3 he gets himself into a lot of trouble. He's in so much trouble that he has to leave his country and move to Brazil where he gets a new job as bodyguard. Unfortunately things go wrong in Brazil once more and it leads Max into a whole lot of trouble and it will take a lot of killing to get Max out of trouble. It's a good thing that Max has his slow mo ability where he can slow time and get some easy kills, this definitely helps you when you face multiple opponents and you...

In games you don't always realize that you're being an asshole, sometimes you just do something that works for you or something you like to do but that can also mean that you're being an asshole in the game. You might think that this isn't important or you don't care about that but how would you feel about it if someone is being an asshole in a game you like and that this person ruins the game for you? I don't think you would like that! Are you an asshole? I guess some people don't even realize that they're being an asshole in a game, they just do what they like and don't think about it. Which is good for them, but for other people it can be quite annoying. For example you're playing a first person shooter and you decide to camp, this might work well for you but you're annoying the fuck out of other people in the game and you can be your ass on it that they'll think that you're an asshole. Maybe you don't care, maybe you don...

No I'm not trying to be an asshole here, I'm seriously asking if you still play Destiny. Just like a year ago I got tired of Destiny the Taken King after a month, because I kind of got everything I could get on my own and then there was a whole lot of nothing. Oh sure there's always the same old crap but that gets old real fast. But now Destiny has Sparrow racing and more things are coming to Destiny so the question is are you still playing destiny or would you return to Destiny now? Sparrow racing? A sparrow is a type of speeder bike that allows you to move quickly when you're exploring, some sparrows are faster and more agile then others but usually you should be able to control them at top speed. So people asked about sparrow races since the first Destiny and now they're finally here, sparrow races and it looks actually quite interesting. You race against five other players and you get rewards at the end of the race as if you completed a mission or strike. Th...

I must admit that I never truly played a Rainbow Six game, sure I played the demo of a couple of Rainbow Six games but I never truly bought one of the Rainbow Six games. Until I saw Rainbow Six Siege, this game looks like a lot of fun and I couldn't help but try it out myself and so far I'm not disappointed! Pick your operator. You have a selection from twenty operators from five teams of four, each operator has his or her own special ability plus a certain weapon loadout. Of course you can change the loadout a bit but you're restricted to certain weapons and your armor is also based on which operator you picked. So a shield operator, for example Montagne, has heavy armor and is a bit tougher to take down while an intelligence operator, for example IQ, has light armor and goes down a bit easier. What I really like about Rainbow Six Siege is that you can pick your own operator, so it doesn't require you to be a certain level to play as a certain operator. As long as ...

If you check on youtube then you probably noticed that there are a lot of videos about gaming, a lot of these videos are made by gamers and showing people some gameplay in a game. This might not seem interesting to everyone but did you know that watching another player play a game can have a positive effect on you? I'm not saying that it's a guarantee but seeing someone play a game can actually helps you do better in a game. Watching someone else play a game makes you better at that game? It's possible, especially if this person is pretty good and gives you some nice tips and tricks. Of course you can ignore that and just do your own thing but don't underestimate the power to learn from others just by watching them play a game, even when they don't do so well you gain information and it should help you do better yourself in a match. You'll see what works and what doesn't work, also you learn which weapons (for example in a first person shooter) or charac...

Actually Linkle is a who and not a what. There are multiple versions of characters so why not make a female version of Link, that's right Linkle is the female version of Link and no it's not Link wearing a dress! Linkle is actually a cool looking character wielding two crossbows that she can use for some deadly ranged combat. Of course she's wearing the traditional green outfit just like Link but with some modifications to make her look good in it. So everyone meet Linkle, Linkle meet everyone. You can play as Linkle? Yes you can play as Linkle in the game Hyrule Warriors which is a hack and slash type of game, think Dynasty Warriors, and gives you the chance to play as characters from the Legend of Zelda games and fight it out on the battlefield. It's not your typical Zelda game but it's definitely looking good! Linkle is a character made for this game, so she's new in Hyrule but that doesn't mean that this is the only time we'll be seeing her in a ...

Let me first explain what a multi part release is, that means you get multiple games. So in other words the Final Fantasy VII remake will not just be one game on a disc, it will be multiple games that will be released at different times which means that you might have to wait years to play the second and/or third part of the game. Is this a good idea or do you hate this? Multi part release is a bad idea? In the old Final Fantasy games you often had to switch discs, this wasn't a big problem because you got all the discs with the game. But now with this multi part release you get a part of Final Fantasy VII (you'll probably have to pay the full price for that) and then wait a couple of years for the next part. I don't think I have to explain why this is a bad idea, but just for you I'll do it anyway. When I'm playing a game with a big story (which is usually your typical RPG) then I want to play it in one go, it's not that I take a break when I'm halfway ...

From the first moment I saw Team Fortress 2 I knew that this is a game I would like and a game I really want to play! So when it became available on the Xbox 360 in the Orange pack I bought it just for Team Fortress 2, sure the Half Life games (2 and episode 1 and 2) and Portal are fun too but I seriously bought the Orange pack for Team Fortress 2. Did I regret that? Nope! Attack, defense and support. You can pick three characters from each catogory, which gives you quite a lot options with what your plan will be in the match. For example if you like to charge then the soldier, the heavy, the scout and the pyro are something for you. If you enjoy playing a more defensive role then you can play as the demo man, the engineer or the spy. But if you prefer a more supportive role then you can also try your luck as the doctor or the sniper. Of course you're not restricted to one role, you can be on the attack as a sniper, defend with the pyro or have more supportive role as the spy. ...

Even if you never check the news and live under a rock then I'm still quite certain that you've noticed that there is a lot more anger out there. People get pissed off quite fast and this sometimes leads to some bad situations. I've noticed that I get pissed off also pretty quickly, I have less patience for things that happen in the game and I find myself getting angry over something that's most likely not even worth it. Which makes me wonder, why are we all getting so angry lately? Games make you angry? Ah yes, this is one of those stupid things some people say. Because games are made to make people angry, oh wait they're actually made to entertain you and I doubt getting angry falls under that catagory! What games can do is frustrate you and frustration can lead to anger, especially if you endure a lot of frustration. Which is why it's important to take a break every now and then, no matter how much fun a game is too much of something is a bad thing! But e...

I love games with an animal companion, just look at Fable 2 and 3 or Fallout 3 and 4. It's great to have an animal follow you arround and help you out when you need it. But what if you could have more than just one animal following you around? What if you could control animals or ride on them into battle? Now that would be pretty amazing! The hunter and the animals fight together? Far Cry Primal takes place in the stone age, I don't know how accurate I can be with that but the cavemen and prehistoric animals kind of gave me that impression, and you're a hunter with some amazing abilities. Not only are you a hunter, you can also tame animals to fight for you. An impressive trick people seem to have lost these days, at least if you would consider Far Cry Primal to be realistic. When you sneak up on a wild animal you can tame that animal, assuming it's one of the many animals you can tame, and then the animal will fight for you. This means a wolf, jaguar, bear, saberto...

Rocksteady is done with Batman, so who picks up where they left? Apparently it's going to be Telltale Games, which is a big surprise for me because I didn't see that coming! If you're unfamiliar with Telltale Games then you might have heard of the Walking Dead, the Wolf Among Us and the Game of Thrones games they made. They're well known for creating interesting stories and characters and then giving you the option to make choices in the game they've created. This leads to some unique moments in the game and makes it also more fun to have multiple playthroughs in one game. So this is point and click Batman? Well let's not forget that there are fighting scenes in Telltale games and eventhough that's not as impressive as the free flow combat in the Arkham games it's still pretty good. I do think that this game will focus more on investigating and how your character (Batman) will react to other characters in the Batman universe. I don't think this m...

For some time I've seen the attempts of getting rid of controllers, the most obvious attempt is the Kinect from Microsoft and I must admit that I'm glad that it didn't work. It seems silly but I really like using a controller, eventhough they've changed over the years it's still something I prefer over the house and keyboard and definitely over something like the Kinect. Perhaps it's not high tech, but at least it works and it's easy to use! What's wrong with controllers? That's a good question, I guess you would have to ask people that are trying to replace the controller that question. From personal experience I do realize that controllers have their flaws, first of all they're expensive and break really fast. The slightest hit can already ruin a controller, the more advanced the controller (for example the elite controller) the more risk it brings because if you drop it then that could already be fatal depending on the situation. Another p...

In 1989 I first heard of the Turtles, it was the cartoon for a young boy and it was like the best thing ever! The games with the Turtles are in their own way pretty cool, some simple hack and slash fighting but the adventure was pretty good since you could play with your friends at the same time. This was a bit different in the birds eye view Turtles game, but it was clear that the 2D adventure that you could play with your friends was the succes of the Turtles games. So there will be a new Turtles game? Of course I'm interested in that! New Turtles game? The name for the new game is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan. At this point it's not officially confirmed, for as far as I know, but it's pretty certain that this is what it's going to be called if they release this game. What does that mean? Well your guess is as good as mine, but it's probably more of what worked in the old Turtles games and now probably with better graphics and maybe some ...