I Drank the Kool-Aid

I decided to cap off my "free" game adventures (my new graphics card came with a special promotion that offered three free games) by saving the biggest game for last--Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey.  Here's the part where I admit that I've never played an Assassin's Creed game prior to Odyssey.  Yes, yes, I know that's really weird, but I've had a sort of doubtful bias against the big name, AAA titles who make it a point to roll out a new game annually.  How good can a game really be if there's virtually no development time between games (and, I think they actually skipped a year prior to Odyssey if I'm remembering correctly)?  Well, it turns out that those games can actually be pretty dang good.  I'm currently having a blast sneaking and stabbing my way indiscriminately through ancient Greece.  I drank the Assassin's Creed Kool-Aid and I'm glad I did.

Since I've never played another AC game before, I have no idea how Odyssey chalks up against its predecessors.  It could be the worst game in the series...or it could be the best, honestly, I don't really care.  Not having played the previous games doesn't seem to have me at any disadvantages other than not really understanding the backstory of the modern, technological parts of the game--there have been a couple of cutscenes involving a VR-like apparatus and some researchers who are basically viewing the story of Kassandra/Alexios.  There's obviously a much bigger story that has played out through the series.

The main story in the game follows your character--either Kassandra or Alexios--as they uncover their strange past in the world of ancient Greece.  They both survived some very traumatic events and have some powerful, almost god-like gifts.  Trying to unravel exactly what happened to their family members is just one piece of the puzzle--there are much bigger conspiracies at work throughout the Greek world.

I've been playing for about 23 hours and have progressed about 25% into the main storyline.  Here's what I'm loving so far:

1.) Kassandra as the female character.  She's tough, smart, beautiful, and exactly the type of female character that I think many female gamers will enjoy playing.  In recent years there seems to have been a shift away from the scantily clad, eye-candy type of character to a stronger, more realistic portrayal of women.  I love the fact that she has bulging biceps and can rock the Greek armor as well as the male character and in a completely unsexualized way.

2.) As someone who loves history, I keep having these nerdy moments of awe as I navigate the Greek world.  I had to stop and take a minute while I was exploring the temple of Apollo just to take in the sites.  It's absolutely amazing to wander around a game version of these real-life wonders of the ancient world.  I love checking out the mosaics, murals, and statues that adorn the temples in cities.  It's also fun to see how they've implemented everyday life into the game--olive groves where workers make olive oil or vineyards filled with vats of grapes being stomped by workers.  So cool!

When they introduced Herodotus as a character....it sort of blew my mind.  The "father of history" in a video game!  Anyone who has ever taken an ancient civ class has learned about or studied Herodotus.

3.) Massive, open world.  I haven't progressed far in the main storyline because I am having a difficult time tearing myself away from simply exploring.  The map is filled with one of my favorite distractions--question marks.  Each of these ? represent a new location to discover and each also includes a virtual to-do list.  It could be a fort filled with soldiers, loot, and war supplies to destroy or a bandit camp that needs clearing.  Either way, I've made it my goal to fill my map with check marks...I have a feeling that will keep me busy for quite awhile.

4.) So much to do!  There's the main storyline, there is exploration, there are mercenaries who can be tracked down and killed so you can rise in rank, there are cultists to unveil and kill, there is a ship to be upgraded, a spear to be upgraded....there are options for a wide variety of player activities.  I've been very impressed with the depth.

5.) Using Ikaros to scout ahead or just to fly over areas and take in the view.  I'm loving having my eagle friend mark enemies and locate treasures.

And now, for the parts that I'm not liking as much or that are confusing to me:

1.)  Early on, players are introduced to the idea that the Greek world is at war.  Athens and Sparta are battling it out for control and each area is under the influence of one of those two factions.  You can influence who is in control of each zone by completing specific objectives that reduce the "nation power" of a faction.  These objectives include killing enemy soldiers, burning "war supplies" that are hidden inside forts, and killing higher ranking enemies--captains or polemarchs.  Each zone includes a leader who must be killed for the area to be vulnerable to conquest--reducing nation power means that this leader gradually becomes more loosely defended.  After you've disposed of the leader, you can participate in a battlefield event to either keep the current faction in charge or replace it with the opposing faction (which is supposed to be more difficult).

So far, I don't really understand the point of this system.  Maybe I haven't progressed far enough in the story to understand how the war ties in with Kassandra's quest to find her family, but I mostly just want to complete the location objectives.  As a result, I've been slaying Athenians and Spartans with no real purpose other than to get that magical checkmark on my map.  Should I be picking sides?  I don't know.

2.) Civilian reactions could be more realistic.  There's a part of me that wishes that they would react like the characters in Dishonored--if they catch you sneaking around in a place where you don't belong, that they go grab the guards.  Instead, they mostly just stand around or don't really react to the fact that you've just jumped off the roof of a building and stuck your spear through a guard's head.  This is probably just nitpicking, and the game doesn't seem to be about hardcore stealth, so it's probably for the best that they don't have a set reaction.

I foresee myself playing Odyssey for many, many more hours.  I've barely scratched the surface of this massively sprawling RPG, and there is a huge checklist of things for me to do.  If you're like me, a PC gamer who hasn't given the Assassin's Creed series much of a chance, I would recommend that you look into them.  I'm having so much fun!

ADDITION 10/28/18:  I decided I should focus on the main storyline (so I can figure out the war and whatnot) and headed into Athens.  Athens is absolutely amazing--a huge, sprawling ancient city that is filled with historical locations--I could climb on top of the Parthenon!  I can fast travel to the top of a massive statue of Athena and take in the sites!  BUT WAIT....I don't want to do that because performance in Athens is REALLY, REALLY HORRIBLE.  I desperately wanted to enjoy these moments as Ikaros flew around and revealed the panorama of the city, but instead was treated to my game slowing down to a sluggish chugfest.  I had Kassandra choppily scamper down the massive statue and noticed that there was an improvement in performance--but not by much.  Don't be surprised if you hit Athens and see your performance tank.  Every other location has run smooth as butter for me.  I've been trying to rapidly finish the locations and missions in Athens so I can get out of the city, which is a bit of a bummer because it's so cool. *Later, that day....so, apparently the problem was that my video card drivers were out of date (I had been willfully ignoring the message that popped up when I logged into the game--alas, it was correct).  Upon updating them to the latest version, Athens runs beautifully.  I took a trek up to the Aeropagus and enjoyed the magical view of the Akropolis.

Strange Brigade Offers Co-Op Slaying Fun

I recently upgraded my graphics card and received three free games as part of an AMD promotion.  Having not heard of two of the games in the package, I was very skeptical about the quality of these bonus games.  The first game I decided to check out was Strange Brigade.  Strange Brigade is a third-person co-op shooter that feels inspired by games like Left 4 Dead and the Tomb Raider series.  Not only are you slaying huge hordes of mummies and skeletons, but you're also using your noggin to solve various puzzles scattered around the map.  That might seem like a bit of a strange combination, but it works well in the campaign mode of the game (probably not so well in the multiplayer, but I'll get to that).

Nalangu on an early level.  Amulet is charged!

Strange Brigade follows the four members of a 1930's supernatural investigative team.  They travel the globe in their oddly homey blimp solving the mysteries associated with various phenomena.  The four members offer a cast of diverse characters to play--Dr. de Quincey is a dashing academic type; Frank Fairburne is a grizzled veteran; Gracie Braithwaite is the brash engineer; and Nalangu Rashida is an African specialist in the spirit world.  Similar to Left 4 Dead, each character seems to specialize in a specific type of weapon (although I'm pretty sure that you can swap out to any weapons that you prefer)--de Quincey and Nalangu start off armed with rapid firing submachine guns/semi-automatic rifles, Gracie seems to be the shotgun specialist, and Frank is the sharpshooter who is armed with a long range rifle.  The story follows the brigade as they travel to Egypt to discover the fate of an archaeologist who had disappeared under mysterious circumstances that appear to be linked to the resurrection of an evil, demonic, Egyptian lady pharaoh.

Pros:

--Indiana Jones-esque/1930's setting and feel.  Each new mission is debriefed in the form of a grainy, black and white faux newsreel.  Missions are doled out by a mysterious "Lady I" over an old-timey radio aboard the brigade's fancy, floating airship base.  The weapons that players use also have a distinct (but definitely not historically accurate) antique type of feel.

--To compliment the 1930's feel, your missions are narrated by a voice that sounds like it came straight out of a radio serial.  Often the narration has a sort of cheesy, over-the-top feeling that is almost cringeworthy, but helps lend the perfect air to each mission.

--Beautiful maps.  Each setting looks amazing--whether you're traversing a lush, valley or a dark, tomb, there are a dazzling array of details to take in.  It's very cool to just look around the map and think about how you're possibly going to end up at a much higher or lower area--somehow you always do though.

--There's more than just shooting.  Every time you kill an enemy they drop a small, floating blue orb that is some sort of magic.  Each character wields a magical amulet that can absorb this magic and store it up for a powerful magic attack.  There's a bit of strategy in deciding when and how to best utilize your amulet.

--Character variety.  Each character can wield the weapons that you want them to, but they also have access to unique amulet powers.  These amulet powers are specific to that character and can be unlocked through discovering and completing relic sets (I will get to that).  Each character has 4 different powers that they can choose from.  Those powers can be useful for things like crowd control or quickly eliminating groups of enemies.  I played as Nalangu and her amulet powers included a fiery, leaping melee attack that could wipe out a group of enemies in an area; a tether-like attack that allows her to attach an electric beam to an enemy and then wipe out any enemies that cross the beam (it's sort of a weird one, but can be useful for running around and taking out a bunch of lesser enemies); a wave of ice that freezes enemies in a straight line and makes them brittle; and a push-back attack that knocks groups of enemies down.  Amulet powers can be easily switched and adapted for different situations--for example, mummies are very flammable but skeletons are not, so it's generally a good idea to swap out abilities based on the enemy type.  Each character is equipped with a main weapon, a sidearm (a pistol or revolver), and a grenade.  All of those items can be swapped with purchasable upgrades.

--Exploration.  Each map features a number of puzzles and locked/hidden rooms that encourage players to do more than just blast their way through to the end.  The benefit of completing these puzzles is that you can find treasure chests that can contain gold or special gems that can be slotted into your weapons to give them extra abilities.  Finding gold is useful because it can be used between missions to unlock new, more powerful weapons.  There are also special relic chests that contain special items that are part of a set.  When these sets are completed, players are granted a "skill point" that can be used to unlock new amulet powers.

--Collectibles.  There are special hidden items that are present throughout each level; finding them all can be quite challenging.  There are six magical cat statues (of the goddess Bast--an Egyptian cat deity) and four canopic jars on each level.  The cat statues aren't especially difficult to find on most levels as there is an audio cue of meowing that plays when you are in the vicinity of the items (on some later levels there is a lot of narration/character talking so it can be easy to miss the cues), but the canopic jars are very well hidden.  Since most levels are highly detailed and massively sprawling, picking out a tiny, turquoise canopic jar is tough.  I think I managed to find 3/4 jars on maybe one or two maps.  Finding all the cat statues will unlock a special door at the end of each level that contains a bunch of gold and a golden cat statue.  Since I didn't manage to find all the jars on any level, I have no idea what finding the jars does (I'm guessing skill points).  There are also letters and magazines with game related lore that can be collected.

--Strategic planning.  Certain areas feature a timed lock mechanism that see you fighting huge hordes of enemies.  These large areas also feature sets of traps that can be shot and utilized when needed--there are spike traps, fire traps, blade traps, so many traps!  One interesting feature of these traps is that they can only be used a certain number of times before they lock.  You really have to plan for the ideal time to pop a trap and slay a big group of enemies--you also have to be careful because inadvertently shooting a trap trigger means that you've wasted a charge of a trap.

--Puzzles.  The concept of putting puzzles into a shooter might seem very odd.  The reality is that these puzzles are really easy to solve.  Most of them require simple attention to detail--there might be sets of hieroglyphs hidden in a certain room, you have to find those glyphs and then shoot the correct pattern on a magical door to unlock it.  The puzzles might be easy, but you do only get three tries to solve most of them (which is plenty--really, they aren't hard).  The most difficult puzzles to solve were the mosaic puzzles that have tiles that rotate in a specific pattern when shot.  Even those puzzles could be trial-and-error'd to success.

--Multiple game modes.  Most players will probably start off with the single player campaign which is story based.  Once players have progressed through the story a bit, they can unlock two other game modes--horde mode and score attack mode.  Horde mode is a wave based challenge that increases with difficulty as players defeat each wave.  Score attack is a timed mode that challenges players to slay enemies as quickly as possible and earn points for utilizing special attacks and traps.

--Single player or co-op play.  The campaign and all game modes support 1-4 players.  Story mode seems to be more oriented toward single players while horde mode would definitely be more fun with multiple players.

--Ran like a charm for me.  No crashes, no bugs, no issues!

Cons:

--Most enemies are slow and easy to defeat.  There are a variety of enemy types and the boss type of enemies are tougher, but 90% of the time I felt like the pied piper of mummies--I would just run around the map with a huge string of lumbering corpses trailing me.  Unlike Left 4 Dead, there aren't enemies that make you change tactics to deal with them.

--Not a ton of challenge.  Puzzles are easy, most enemies are easy to defeat (FYI--I started on the default difficulty but there are other difficulty settings.  You can even opt to force the maximum number of enemies--basically making the game populate enemies as if 4 people were playing) and even the boss fights weren't particularly challenging.  I think I died two times total--and I wouldn't exactly classify myself as someone who has any special ability at shooters.

--Multiplayer needs some tweaking.  Although I haven't played the multiplayer, one of the big complaints on the forums is that gold is not equally doled out in multiplayer mode and often each match becomes a race to see who can find chests first as opposed to actual cooperative play.  The devs should definitely rethink this mechanic if they want to encourage true co-op play.  It sounds like the best plan for multiplayer is to play with friends and not to choose "random match,"

--DLC, DLC, and more DLC.  There are new weapons that can be purchased, three new characters, and a recently rolled out (part 1 of 3) new set of campaign missions.  Holy cash grab Batman!  Of course you could always opt for the $34.99 season pass...

--Overpriced.  The game is pretty and I had fun, but I finished the campaign at around 12 hours.  I messed around a bit with horde mode and score attack, but I don't really see the the game as being worth the $49.99 price tag.  If I hadn't have gotten it for "free" as part of a promotion I definitely wouldn't have paid that much for it.  I highly recommend waiting until it starts to be offered at a sale price.

I would recommend Strange Brigade to those who don't see themselves as traditional shooter-types--it would be great for those who are looking for an entry level shooter that provides some challenge, but will still allow them to feel a sense of accomplishment or for those who want some exploration and light puzzle solving sprinkled in.  It's beautiful and very detailed, but is currently overpriced for the amount of content that players get.

TL;DR

Recommended for:

--Gamers looking for an entry-level type of shooter

--Players who like some exploration and puzzle solving on top of their shooting

--Players with fat wallets.

--Players looking for a game to play with their non-gamer-ish significant other.

--Players who have friends they can play with.

Not recommended for:

--Hardcore shooter fans.  It's not hard enough for your leetness.  BLOPS4 just came out.

--Players wanting to multiplayer with random peeps (it's a mess--read above).

--Gamers on a budget.  It's currently overpriced--wait until a sale.

Upgrade Accomplished!

Lately, as beautiful new releases (like Assassin's Creed: Odyssey) come rolling out, I've made the decision to take a glance at the system specs and see if my four year old PC is up to snuff.  Sadly, reality started to sink in that my graphics card was no longer enough to land me firmly in the "recommended" specs, but mostly found me planted in the "minimum" section.  This had become apparent to me as I played a few newer titles--Dishonored 2 defaulted to the "very low" setting and I hadn't realized that The Witcher 3 was defaulting to "low."  I decided that it was time to take the plunge and look into upgrading my graphics card.

If you're someone with a decent amount of technical knowhow, the thought of someone having anxiety over something as simple as swapping out a graphics card is probably laughable.  To someone like me, with a very small amount of technical knowhow, this task required many hours of research, shopping, and teeth gnashing.  There are many aspects to consider--do I have the right slots on my MOBO?  Is my power supply enough for a beefier card?  Will it fit inside my case?  Those technical questions could be answered with a bit of Googling, but there still remained the financial questions.  Buying a new component is intimidating to the wallet of someone with a moderate income and graphics card prices were insanely high about a year ago.  Prices have definitely come down, but there's still the uncertainty that if a card didn't work, I could be out of a good chunk of change.

In ordering my new card, I decided that ease of return was important.  I didn't want to get stuck with a $300 card that didn't work.  Newegg offers a magical array of beautiful cards, but they don't offer refunds on graphics cards and only offer replacements.  Knowing this, I decided that it would probably be a better idea to buy from a big box store that offers full refunds.  This was for the best because I had once tried to upgrade a graphics card only to find that my MOBO wouldn't support the newer card that I had bought.  Fortunately, Best Buy has a very easy return policy and I was able to get the full amount of my purchase refunded (even with the packaging being opened).

Sparkly!

So, I bit the bullet and ordered a brand, spankin' new graphics card.  My old card was an R9 290 and it was a great card--I had no problems and most games worked well at lower settings.  One of the major decisions was the possibility of switching from an AMD card to an NVIDIA one.  It really seemed like there was a much bigger selection of NVIDIA cards and I had some definite thoughts about making the switch.  In the end I decided that with my level of non-technical skills that it would be better to stick with an AMD card (I know nothing about the whole AMD vs. NVIDIA battle--I'm sure each brand has its own pros and cons).  Now, I'm the proud owner of an RX 580 and am enjoying the smooth as butter graphics.

I can feel a mild flush of pride at my ability to unscrew a couple of screws, slide a card out, and then screw in the new card.  This is the first time I've successfully upgraded a PC and I'm excited.  My new card came as part of a promotion where you get three free games with purchase--I received Assassin's Creed:  Odyssey, Star Control: Origins, and Strange Brigade.  I hadn't heard of two of those games and I've never played an Assassin's Creed game before.  I let them download overnight and have been giving them a whirl.  I started with Strange Brigade, which is a third person shooter that features Co-Op play.  The story has a very Indiana Jones-esque feeling and is set in the 1930's.  I've spent a couple of hours playing and I'm finding that it's actually fun.  I plan to spend some time playing the other two games after I've finished Strange Brigade.

It seems to be a good time to look into buying a new graphics card as prices have fallen from the insane highs of the cryptomining days.  If you take the plunge, good luck!  I did it and I'm not looking back :)

Fragtrapped

My virtual gaming ADD, which lately has seen me unable to settle on playing a specific game, has finally settled down.  Last week I wrote about how I was hopping around a few different games with no real dedication to one title.  Strangely, after I had written that post, I ended up feeling a weird pull toward a very unlikely title that I've always felt more than a little ambivalent about--Borderlands:  The Pre-Sequel.  I decided that I would start it up and see exactly where I had left off and go from there.

Claptrap is basically a rolling roulette wheel.

My new-old B:TP-S game had ended on a playthrough with a level 6 Claptrap--yes, I had decided to stop playing as the world's most annoying robot.  Being at level 6 was perfect for where I wanted to start--it wasn't a brand new playthrough so I didn't have to drool through all the tutorials, but there were still a few left to help refresh my memory after a long period away.  I decided to stick with Clappy and keep going.

As one of the vault hunters, Claptrap offers a bit of variety.  He doesn't really have a set action skill and, according to the game, his software helps him analyze the situation and pick the best choice for a specific situation.  After vaulthunter.exe has finished its analysis, you could wind up with any number of abilities popping up such as:

1.) Funzerker--Clappy will wield two weapons and fire constantly for the duration of the action.  This is inspired by the gunzerker character and skill from Borderlands 2.  It's a huge ammo drain, but it's handy for clearing out large groups of enemies or throwing down a bunch of damage on a badass.

2.) Meat Unicycle--Clappy takes on a psycho personality and wields a melee weapon.  Melee damage is massively increased and you cannot use your guns.  Mostly, you get shot a lot.

3.) Miniontrap--Clappy turns invisible and drops a smaller claptrap that can shoot rockets.  This ability is very useful for low-health situations.  Being invisible means you aren't getting attacked and your mini-minion actually does a decent amount of damage.

4.) Mechromancer--A mini-mechcromancer minion flies around and attacks enemies for the duration of this skill.  It's good for groups of enemies.

5.) Blightbot--Another mini-minion that is similar to the mechromancer but that flies around dealing corrosive and fire damage.

6.) Rubber ducky--Clappy is riding a giant rubber duck and will bounce in the air for the duration of the skill.  Bullets are deflected so it's sort of like a short period of invincibility...but it's really hard to attack when you're bouncing in the air.

There are probably some that I'm missing, but the point is that Claptrap's action skill is a total toss up and you never know exactly which one you're going to get.  It definitely keeps you on your toes and does offer some humor and variety.

Claptrap's talents also seem to be built around making everything completely chaotic.  One tree offers the ability to gain a fire and reload speed (and possibly damage) buff but the type of weapon changes every 100 seconds.  I took this talent and am constantly switching weapons--it's kind of fun and doesn't allow you to settle on a specific weapon type.

It's very odd that I settled back on The Pre-Sequel because I've found it to be one of the weaker entries in the series.  They tried to spice the game up by adding in low-gravity, freeze weapons, butt slamming, and lasers, but all these minor novelties can't make up for the boring story that is lacking the fun characters from the other games.  For some reason, I've been more entertained than in my past playthroughs--maybe the chaos of Clappy is just right?

Whatever the reason, I'm planning on finishing the final missions with my friendly little Claptrap.  Sometimes the weirdest games just have a way of grabbing you.