5 things Final Fantasy XV needs in order to equal the older games

"It's been a long time... Too long. Not much longer..."

That phrase at the end of the Final Fantasy XV trailer still gives me chills because it has indeed been too long. Up until now the game looks like it's going to be epic, but at the same time fans of the Final Fantasy games of the golden years (late 90's) are still pondering about if this one will really be the revival of the franchise we were waiting for. Up until now everything points to a resounding "yes", but there are still a few things that the game will need in order to be up to par with its older brothers, so let's see what are those "things" that are mandatory for the newest entry in the series.

Garden Festival (FFVIII)

1) Diversity of Events
Out of every Final Fantasy game in the 90's, we got a lot more than just fighting non-stop in order to advance the storyline. For example we have events like Fort Condor in FFVII, helping Selphie do the garden festival in FFVIII and even the spooky doom train in FFIII (VI). What diversity of events means is that the game needs to put us in all kinds of situations that add value to our experience and give us a little more than just punching our way through the story. The protagonists in FFXV are on a cross-country road trip, so if Square Enix doesn't do this, they will be missing a great opportunity.

How close is FFXV from this?
It seems real close, judging for the city parts, demo gameplay and especially from the footage that shows how the game will be while infiltrating a military base.

Celes thinking about ending her life (FFIII or VI)

2) Dramatic and touching situations
Drama and touching/sad/cute moments are part of what made the old Final Fantasy games so special.Tifa and Cloud talking about their childhood dreams while sitting in the park where they used to play in FFVII and the scene where Celes is singing alone at the top of the hill thinking about ending her life in FFIII (VI) are great examples of AAA story telling and Final Fantasy XV will need this in order to captivate players to a point where the game becomes unforgettable.

How close is FFXV from this?
It seems too early to tell, but at least we know that Noctis has a seemingly deep background story involving his family and the war which shows a lot of promise. Let's just hope that there are a lot more stories like that.

Treno: The Dark City (FFIX)

3) Towns that feel alive
Towns are a big part of what encompasses a good rpg game and as older Final Fantasy games have taught us, a good town in a FF game is one where everywhere we explore we find something cool, be it an item inside a house, a side story or just a cleverly placed dialogue. As FFXV is a next (current) generation game, fans expect it to have towns that mean a lot more than mere resting hubs (I am looking at you FFXIII!).

How close is FFXV from this?
The FFXV demo proved that this can be done in the game, as the garage had a lot of detail even though it was just a small place. They only need to keep this level of detail on the cities that Noctis and his friends will explore and this requirement will be fulfilled.

Zach's side quest (FFIII or VI)

4) Side quests that actually mean something
Older FF games had some side quests in them and most of them had a good purpose and reward, rather than just killing x number of enemies for experience points or fetching something for an item. We all know that the game will be open world and that this type of design makes it hard to add significance to everything, but at least they could throw some quests now and then that makes us feel that we did good when we decided to stray from the main story of the game.

How close is FFXV from this?
This one is really an unknown factor, so we will all know about it when we actually play the full game. If they manage to pull this off even when the game has an open world design, they will definitely receive a lot of appreciation for it.

Sephiroth (FFVII)

5) Have cool and admirable characters
From the days of old up to our present time. Rpg fans have always appreciated cool and/or admirable characters that we can feel catharsis for. Be it a brave girl with a troubled past, an iron clad military general that fights his/her rival on an epic fight or just a mercenary that redefines the term "coolness", FFXV definitely needs to have something along those lines or else it will not be as memorable as its predecessors.

How close is FFXV from this?
Well, the protagonists are cool, but we need some other characters because the heroic/evil factor can't just fall on them alone. The footage where they show the characters going through a military facility shows a mysterious lancer type character (later revealed to be a girl called Aranea Highwind) at the very end of the video so yeah, we may get some cool characters after all.

Street Fighter V shows how pessimistic we have become

Putting things straight from the very beginning I'll start this one by stating that I am not defending Capcom or any other company and because of this I am limiting myself to the human factor of this whole backlash and why I am partially against it. I will try to compress my points of view as best as I can, but I will still explain in detail why I think like I do, because otherwise my message may be mistaken, so bear with me.

In the last couple of weeks Street Fighter V has received a lot of bad press from many people on the net and while it is kind of understandable (the game was indeed sold unfinished) the battle cries have been too loud for too long up to a point in which most of us don't know if the latest criticism of the game is legit or just a strategy to get some clicks. Why do I say this? Well on the other side of the spectrum I have seen tons of videos of people just having fun with it, even on its current state (you are not getting off the hook Capcom!) and if there are people that are having fun, then this is a sign that the whole uproar is not as pristine and noble as you might believe.

Half of the problem comes the fanboy factor. Before you throw tomatoes at me I can tell you that I am not stating that everybody who criticizes the game is a fanboy (even I have my own complaints SFV), but after surfing around the net and seen how many people have reacted, I can safely say at least half of this situation is fueled by a sense of fandom. This is actually a phenomenon that is very predominant on this generation, one that I like to call "exclusivity blues" which is when somebody trashes a game just because it wasn't released on their console of choice. It is similar to what happened to games like Bloodborne (some people still say that it isn't a legitimate "souls" game), Halo 5 (trashed by many people without even playing it) and even Driveclub which was fixed and polished over time to be a good racing game, but it is still pictured negatively, regardless of its current fixed state.

Other than fanboy-ism against exclusives (the other half of the problem) we have to admit that we as a community have turned into a very pessimistic one, with some "arguments" that are really short of not making any sense. If we take Street Fighter V as an example, we can mention the fact that some people state that the game should had been delayed until June for it to be released completely. This makes sense in some ways, but if you really think about it... Wouldn't it be the same thing? If you were raised at the same time I did, you would know that sometimes we would had given anything to have a piece of the game early in order to satisfy our hunger while the rest of it was released. We went as far as going around buying demos (Remember those playstation Jampack demo discs?) and I still remember how a group of friends and I played the heck out of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater demo, up until the day it was finally released. It was crazy, but fun as hell even if it was just one stage and 2 skaters. A similar thing happened with Cool Boarders 2, so you can imagine.

My overall point about this subject is that even though criticism is good (anybody who ever read this blog knows that I bash companies a lot), we still need to do it in a precise and close to surgical way. It needs to be like this because we will otherwise sound like an unorganized angry mob instead of an educated group of people pointing out flaws in the products related to our favorite hobby. The pouting attitude doesn't help at all and just unnecessarily throws dirt on top of games that can be good, but are not given the chance just because their first impression was problematic. We have to accept that technology has enabled games to have updates and this means that most of your concerns can and most probably will be fixed in a set amount of time, so have patience and wait a little.

Ready your flame throwers for companies that just plain ignore you. For the rest just give them some time and see how hey react before raining hell on them. We need a lot more patience and positivism if we want the gaming scene to be as enthusiastic and awesome as it once was. Companies are not saints, I know, but we can't afford to make a ruckus that will kill, rather than fix the games we love. Think about this the next time you want to point your pitchforks and torches against a game.

5 JRPG to look for in 2016

Hello my friends! It's good to be back and now that I'm here blogging again let's have something for my favorite genre of all, which is Japanese RPG games. I've recently noticed how even some of my friends (who are also hardcore jrpg fans) are kind of lost about what the Japanese role playing game scene will offer to us in the near future, so I've decided to stop my almost non-stop marathon of Xenoblade Chronicles X for a while and make a little guide of whats heading our way in the form of confirmed west side releases.

Note: Although this guide is supposed to be only composed of games that will be released on 2016, I will start it by mentioning one that is coming this month.

Exist Archive

Platforms: PS4, PSVITA

Western release date: December 17, 2015

It still baffles me that not many rpg fans are aware about this game, especially considering that this is in fact the successor of the Valkyrie Profile series, sharing the same gameplay elements and featuring a similar plot involving life beyond death. So far the gameplay footage that the developers have released into the public shows that the game will be a side-scroller, but the fights within the game will be turn based and the story goes around the main character dying and instantly appearing on a strange alternate dimension. What is different between Valkyrie Profile and Exist Archive is that the side-scrolling exploration on this one has a lot more interaction and will probably have backtracking and puzzle elements similar to a "metroidvania" game, which is something that will add a lot to the overall game. This one is coming up soon, so prepare those wallets.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness

Platforms: PS3, PS4
Western release date: TBA 2016

This one began as a simple tease by Square Enix where they published an enigmatic website sometime ago, but finally after a long stream of trollings and false hopes, a new Star Ocean game was actually announced. If you look at the gameplay video, you can see that the game will take sort of an action rpg-ish style, but at the same time it keeps all of the original goodies that we are accustomed to when we talk about a Star Ocean game. The game has no specific release date for the west, but considering that the Japanese version of the game will be released on February, I'd say we will probably be playing Star Ocean by Summer.

Nier: Automata

Platforms: PS4
Western release date: TBA 2016

The first Nier game was released in 2010 and while it may have passed unnoticed for some, it gained quite a following and had a good reception between those who played it. Now Square Enix joins up with Platinum Games and they are going full force with it's sequel, side named "Automata". This new Nier game seems to be featuring the same action rpg mechanics and open world of the last one, but this time it looks like the game will be a lot more focused and solid. It is also worth noting that this time, the game will jump a little into the futuristic side where the main character has to deal with all sorts of robots and machines in an earth that has been invaded by a mysterious race of mechanical based life forms. No official release date has been announced, but we could try to guess and say this one could be on shelves by late Summer or early Autumn 2016 although we could be surprised with an earlier date as new announcements are made.

Bravely Second: End Layer

Platforms: 3DS
Western release date: Spring 2016

Called by some "the Final Fantasy of these modern times", Bravely Default is known to be the game that brought Square back to the JRPG scene and it's sequel will come to the west in 2016 to the delight of all jrpg fans in this part of the planet. The game promises to have the same goodies that the first one delivered, but a lot of new and awesome things to add up. I expect another epic story and a bigger world than the previous game so this is definitely the one Japanese rpg to have on a handheld console, mostly because real classic JRPG experiences are kind of scarce on that type of platform.

Persona 5

Platforms: PS3/PS4
Western release date: Summer 2016

This one needs no introduction to any JRPG fan and it will (hopefully) be released on Summer 2016. Last thing we knew was that the game had been delayed (again) and while we got a few nice trailers, most of us felt like this was the jrpg to have this Christmas. From what we have seen from the game since it was first announced, it will feature the same mood and atmosphere that the Persona games are famous for, but it will also have an added layer of exploration where you will have to actually run and even jump on things in order to get ahead in certain areas. This one seems pretty strong, so I'm sure that all this waiting game was actually worth it.

Wrapping things up

Well ppl, there you have 5 Japanese RPGs to keep you busy in 2016. It is important to state that this is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many other games like these coming in 2016 and if I had kept going, the list would had been bigger than planet Mira on Xenoblade Chronicles X, so yeah that's quite big. If you want to see a full list of the JRPG games coming on 2016 you can check it HERE. I know I've been ranting a lot about the lack of this genre in the past, but I think this is it. 2016 is the year of the JRPG and the future looks awesome!

Final Fantasy 7 Remake: The Hard Challenges Ahead

Most of us were astounded when the very much acclaimed remake was finally announced at the Sony E3 conference, but after all the celebration I know many of us started thinking about it and began asking ourselves "How are they specifically going to do this?". The question comes from the fact that all of the Final Fantasy games in the 90's were more about design and style than graphics, so if this is to be a remake... What hurdles will they have to go over in order for this remake to be as good as we expect it to be? That question sets a chain reaction of doubts like the ones you will see below.

To be turn based or not to be?

The first thing that most likely passed through the mind of many fans is the fighting system. Back in the day Final Fantasy 7 was all about classic turned based combat, but in today's day and age Square Enix isn't so comfortable with it anymore. Ever since Final Fantasy XI Online, they have been transitioning from turn based to a more action oriented approach, only giving Final Fantasy XIII and XIII 2 a shot at the old school style just to turn it back into action based again with Lighting Returns. What Square Enix will do with a game as big as Final Fantasy 7 is anybody's guess, but if I had to give a definitive answer I would say that they will stick to turn based, but try to mix it up somehow or at least make it look fresh. They can't just go full action rpg on the game because then they would have to sacrifice a lot of depth that the game needs to be as epic as the original one, but hey that's just my humble opinion.

Scaled world map or something more realistic?

The world in Final Fantasy 7 is really big for a linear game, but the way it is connected has a lot to do with how fun it is to explore. Back in the day, the scaled world map not only served for grinding purposes, but also for finding hidden events and secrets that ranged from simple stuff like finding a hidden item to whole scenarios like Fort Condor. Now the people at Square Enix have to be thinking on how to do this without it looking dated. They know that they need a way for players to go from place to place, but they can't really go fully realistic (or with a boring menu based system) here because that will basically slash away 30% of the game. I know that this is a remake and it does not have to be a carbon copy of the original one, but in this aspect they will need to be really smart or else they will break the whole thing.

Materia system...Simplified?

The materia system is one of the most fun skill systems in any JRPG. It is kind of complex when you try it for the first time, but as you get good at it you will find all sorts of crazy materia combinations while you look for one that gives you an edge in battle. Now in the world we live in today, a system as complex as this can be a turn down for many players that could lack the time or patience to efficiently work with it, so it is quite possible that the developers of this remake are already thinking of ways to re-engineer the materia system in order to cater to both the fans and curious new players. There is also a chance that the system will be split in two, with the original version for fans of the game and a simpler version for anybody that feels like the materia system is too complex for them. A third and very distinct possibility is to re-make the whole system, but I personally see that as very unlikely.

Is dungeon complexity at risk?

One of the best things in Final Fantasy 7 was how good the dungeon and explorations parts where. From climbing through a mountain of junk and storming into a giant government building, to a Japanese styled tower and even a running train in a collision path, the way in which we experienced all of these places was very dynamic and had a lot of essence to it because they all were unique. Now the problem begins when translating all of those places from pre-rendered environments to full 3D ones. Will we be able to explore Don Corneo's mansion at will, peeping into every room? (Don't look at me like that, I know everybody will do that). Will we be able to invade the Shinra building in the same way we did in the original game with all the different paths and details to find? Will exploration in dungeons and places be as good as the original or will we find ourselves running through generic versions of these places? Square Enix has to give a lot of attention to this issue because it is not only about looking pretty, but also feeling like we are playing through a broader and enhanced version of the memorable places we used to know.

Are mini games and micro events at risk?

Final Fantasy games in the 90's were linear yes, but they had such a great variety of micro events and small stuff to do that they almost felt like they weren't. So how can Square Enix bring this to the remake? I know we are all hoping that they do so just like they did back then in the Square Soft days, but there's a possibility that they could take the lazy path and just throw a bunch of QTE events which is scary for any Final Fantasy fan out there and even more so when such a big game like this has a 2017 release date. Will they be hard pressed to sacrifice some of the awesome stuff that mini games and micro events added to the game or will they grind up, rise to the challenge and give us all the neat stuff? That my friends, is just a matter how much they want this game to succeed.

Wrapping it up

Will these challenges be conquered? Nobody knows...

The Final Fantasy 7 remake shows a lot of promise and has put all of our imaginations to work, but we also have to be aware that this is a big time production and a very long game. Let's just hope that they have been working on this for a long while now, or at least enough for it to be as loyal to the original as possible while giving us that little extra that the original couldn't on the technology we had back then. For now let's just hope and see because if the house of Final Fantasy does well in all of the previously mentioned challenges, we will be well on our way to one of the most epic games ever.


Bonus Stage!

Here I share you people, a video made by a friend of mine with his impressions of the FF7 remake reveal. It's really simple, but straight to the point.

Game Doctrine E3 Special

Game Doctrine is a little side project I have been working up with a friend and what better way to introduce our little wacky antics than I showing you our E3 special. If you don't understand some aspects of this episode you can look for previous ones so you can see what it is all about, hope you all enjoy it.

Game Doctrine is shaping up to be a channel that mixes up gaming discussion and criticism with a simple storyline and lots of extras that will be added as we go. I know we have a lot to improve, but we are working to make this a better channel and have lots of ideas that we will be implementing in the future. If you liked the video then help us out by liking, subscribing and sharing the video as it will be of great motivation to us.

E3 2015 - Keys to Victory

We are basically 15 days away from this year E3 event and the stakes couldn't be higher. Sony has a big lead in the console war, but the PS4 is running the risk of becoming slow in the sense that their biggest guns are not ready and demand for new games has become very intense. Microsoft has been on the losing side for the last couple of years, only managing to win some months in terms of sales, but the lack of powerful games in the past could lead them to give gamers a lot of good news that have been building up until now. On the other hand, Nintendo has been recovering little by little, relying on their solid fan base. Don't get me wrong, we all know that the Wii U is still struggling (even though it is a very good console with a good game library), but it has at least gathered enough power to survive.

Now let's see what needs to happen for any of the companies to win...

Pros:

• Expectations, having the chance to announce a lot of exclusives.
• The Xbox One fanbase is still strong.

Cons: 

• Out of the Xbox One fanbase, morale is low and people are clearly thinking that Microsoft only cares about certain genres. 
• Many gamers feel left out and have no strong reason that could justify buying the console.

Keys to Victory
In order to win the E3 battle, Microsoft must come up with an attractive offer, not only to their long time fans, but to other gamers too. For example, if all of their announcements are about shooters and sports, the possibilities for them to end up victorious are greatly diminished because neutral gamers (potential buyers at this point) will feel left out and because of this, Microsoft will find themselves in the same place they did last year.

Another thing that they should use to lift themselves over the others would be to take a lost franchise and revive it. The Silent Hill rumor was proven to be false, but it wouldn't surprise me if the higher ups at Microsoft have given Konami a couple calls after seen how gamers reacted on the web making this an opportunity that could make them win this year E3. Other options for them would be to give some love to their own flagship franchises like Gears of War and Alan Wake (which has a small chance of ending up on PS4) in order to use these fan favorites as reinforcements for their new projects (by keeping the platform relevant to their fans while trying to win new ones).

Bottom line
This year it is all about games with Microsoft and they need to have quite a bombing run in order to pull up the Xbox One from the fact that they are lagging behind by more than 10 million units. If they do this right, they can take the E3 event by storm, but if they don't then it will be just another year of them falling behind Sony in the console race.

Sony
Pros: 

• A great market advantage and popularity.
• Gamers still believe in Sony's promise of bringing a new PS2 era.

Cons:

• Their first party lineup for the rest of the year looks weak.
• Most of the previous big announcements are for games in 2016 or have no release date at all.
• Sony is still carrying the burden of past mishaps (the christmas DDOS attacks, Driveclub issues, The Order 1886 failing to meet the expectations of the mainstream crowd).

Keys to Victory

Sony needs to have some big announcements for this E3 event or else they will have a very hard time. For starters they should at least show some game play of Uncharted 4 in order to keep their fan base all hyped off and to prove that the game will be worth the wait. They should also prove that they will have a lot of third party games that the Xbox One doesn't have (mostly from Japanese studios) and that these games can cover up for the fact that the PS4 first party lineup looks kind of empty for 2015.

They also need for their conference to be fun and dynamic because last year it looked as if they could learn a thing or two from Nintendo who has changed their image from dull goobers back to the trolls they used to be in the 90's and this means less of the "boring politician" style and more of a radical feel to it. Another thing that they should also improve in their conference offering is to talk more about games and less about statistics.

Another thing that Sony needs to do is to unleash their speculated franchises unto their fans. Many PS4 users are eager to hear about the new Gravity Rush game as well as the rumored (and apparently fake) Medevil game that took the net by storm because of some picture, so there you have two possible heavyweights. Now last but not least if they really want to give their E3 conference the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, then they should show something about legendary non-existent (at least for now) games like The Last Guardian or maybe revive Crash Bandicoot or Legend of the Dragoon at least. Yeah I know that those last 3 games I mentioned are very unlikely to happen, but hey we can still hope.

Bottom line
For Sony to hold this year E3, they need to keep reassuring gamers that the "PS2 era" that they promised to unleash on the PS4 is still happening. If things are like Andrew House said and 2015 is more of a year of investment and planting seeds for the future, then they need to give us a glimpse of that future or else skepticism will hurt all that they have managed to achieve up to this point.

Pros:

• Fanbase is as solid as ever.
• The Wii U has gone from nothing, to now having the most interesting exclusive game lineup in the console wars.
• Nintendo has recovered from the slump they were into and now they are looking at profits again even though the Wii U console itself it still lagging behind.

Cons:

• Haven't been able to convince enough skeptics to give a chance to the Wii U.
• Legend of Zelda U was delayed and some key games still have no release date.

Keys to Victory

Nintendo is in a very good position for this year E3 even though the fact that they delayed the Legend of Zelda for the Wii U may push you to think otherwise. The first thing that Nintendo needs to do in their E3 Nintendo Direct is to be as straight forward as they can and show the games they have been teasing us about for a long time. We need to see more about games like the Shin Megami Tensei / Fire Emblem crossover, the new Star Fox game for the Wii U, See a little bit more about Mario Maker and of course, finally get release dates for Xenoblade Chronicles X and the new Fatal Frame localization to the west. 

For Nintendo to be able to get a hold of this year E3 (which would be a back to back win, considering that they "won" last year) they need to make their presentation to be both informative and exciting at the same time. So they should once again start with a bit on the wacky side as they did last year and follow through with updates on their games, coupled with some new announcements in order to keep the fan base interested and well seated on the hype train. 

As for the Nintendo World Championships, they need to be as impressive as the one in the 90's or better. We need to see the Nintendo of old still living and breathing in this modern era and I think that the Championships are a good way to show it. If the championship ends up been an over the top event, then it will add up to their whole E3 efforts in a very good way.

Botom line

Nintendo has a real chance here to continue their climb up to the minds of Skeptics that up to this point still believe that Nintendo is only for kids. For Nintendo, this year E3 has to be all about placing themselves in front of the competition and displaying their might for all of us to see, which means showing the games that their platform has and the others don't. If they go around it passively, they will not defend their past year win, so they need to come as strong as possible while giving it that hilarious Nintendo twist that they had accustomed us to in their previous recent offerings. 

So in the end... Who will win?

Like in a sporting event, the game isn't over until its over so predicting a winner is not a wise move. I personally expect Microsoft to come up swinging, Sony keeping a well hidden surprise to us and Nintendo doing their thing without any problems at all. In the end it all comes down to who can shock us or at least give us more enjoyment with their announcements so that #1 spot is still up for grabs.

Bloodborne - types of death for careless players

Yeah, Bloodborne is here and while a lot of people is just mesmerized by it and have been playing for countless hours (myself included), others are still struggling and counting themselves out of the experience just because the game seems to be "too hard". The reality about this is that Bloodborne while challenging, is not as difficult as previous related titles like the Demon Souls/Dark Souls games. The base difficulty is kind of the same, but the game mechanics differ so much in style that this time players can feel a lot more comfortable while hacking through the hellish creatures that inhabit the nightmarish places that they will go through.

Why do I write an article such as this without tangible tips?

Well, while others can tell you a lot of technical stuff like how to get insight or where to grind for blood or what pattern to use against a boss, your real enemy in any game like Bloodborne is yourself. The reason for this is that we have a few attitudes that work against us and that are very apparent in a game like this, so today we will see some of them so you can spot them and make your own adjustments, unless you want to keep dying and dying, ad nauseam without an apparent logical reason. Now without any more introduction let's begin the list.

Expecting a land-slide "photo finish" victory  = discouraging death.
I personally had this problem and while it is sometimes kind of obvious, it is quite hard to neutralize. We sometimes just expect to land a lucky combo and just rally to the finish. It is like playing a baseball game, scoring 15 runs early and just continue on cruise control until the end of the game. The truth is that this will almost never happen in Bloodborne (or any souls game), so you have to accept this or else you will get very discouraged each time a boss lands a hit on you basically letting yourself die because you didn't thought that you could fight back and win. Most of the time it takes some Rocky style "go the distance" struggle before you can fell a beast and survive. It will not always be pretty or easy, but it is very satisfying.

Thinking that grinding will make bosses a breeze = deserved death.
This one may be an attitude that newcomers could find themselves with. The grinding and leveling in Bloodborne is faster than any of the other related games, but that doesn't mean that adding up stat points will make it a breeze. The game is mostly based on dodge and attack mechanics, so even if your stats are high, if you are not fast enough when playing a boss you are going to get hit a lot and die regardless of how much you "enhanced" your character. Don't get carried away in a grind fest for too long and focus on your strategy.

Not playing with a healthy dose of confidence = unexpected death.
For both newcomers and those who have a history with the Soul games, it must had been pretty weird to keep taking damage while you were playing as careful as possible. This is because the game is designed in a way that it rewards you for been aggressive, but penalizes you if you are too shy when attacking. For example, I began my game with the Cane weapon. At first I was having problems with normal enemies because the cane has less attack power than the other weapons, but after a while a discovered that the real problem was that I wasn't attacking with authority, instead I was just trying to poke the monster to death (which doesn't work that well with crowds), so now I play Bloodborne just like I would play Castlevania and the change in my survival rate was impressive. Your #1 rule when fighting an enemy in Bloodborne should be that if the creature hesitates then you hack and slash it to oblivion.

Ignoring the potential of items = unnecessary death.
This one goes for those of you out there that are just ignoring the good assortment of items that you have in Bloodborne. Survival isn't always limited to attacking and dodging as sometimes a well placed item can be a lifesaver or just make a fight a lot easier (for example try some simple stuff like throwing an oil pot on a monster and then using a Molotov to set the thing on fire). Later on you will find a lot of good items that will serve you well in your fight against the hellish hordes and some of these items even have a logical connection to the big bad boss itself (like a certain music box).

Seen armor as a simple fashion statement = fabulous death.
Armor sets in Bloodborne are quite cool, but they have stats and some of them go a little further than just a cool looking set. If you simply change sets for their visual appearance then you must surely be a dodging master or at least finish boss fights really fast, because the type of attributes your armor has sometimes play a significant role in whether you live or die and it also applies to some normal enemies in the game. For example that church gear that doesn't look as badass as you would had liked is really good at resisting poison and that my friends is quite useful against some annoying beast that lurks around Old Yharnam.

Wrapping it up:
I know that the things mentioned as tips on this article can look kind of obvious to some of you, but I know that others may be going like "damn it, I do that all the time". The cool thing is that changing those attitudes can really take your skills up a couple notches not only on Bloodborne, but on any game that requires skill and quick thinking.

Some Things That The Lizard Squad Situation Can Teach Us

If you tried to play any Xbox360/XboxOne/PS3/PS4 games with an online component on Christmas day or a day later, you may have been one of the many gamers worldwide that found themselves feeling like a modern gaming version of the guy from Cast Away. This is most especially true (and somewhat cruel) if you got some of the hottest new games/consoles as Christmas presents. Now that most of the dust has settled, we have to admit that even though it was hell on earth for some people, there are some good things to learn about this whole DDOS attack fiasco. As you read, look for the lessons in red even though you may disagree with some of them.

First, take a moment to check your entire game library...

If you take some time to look at your library of games, there is a high probability that you have a lot of games that you haven't really touched in a while even though you haven't finished them. You know why is that? It is because those abandoned games are mostly offline and part of you doesn't want that as you are accustomed to playing online and making progress in order to stay in par with your peers be it in aspects like your character level, rank, equipment/items or just the social value of the online experience.

The thing about all this is that competition/cooperative online based gaming is not the only type of gaming that exists and you may have forgotten that even if the online service is off, you are not necessarily stranded as you may have some offline options that otherwise you would be missing out because of the way you pressure yourself to an online only experience. It is good to let go every now and then and enjoy all the games you have even when they are not an always connected (and prone to attacks) experience. Of course before you scoff at the screen and say that The Gamertologist is an antisocial prick, know that this does not imply that you should just become an offline gamer, it just suggests that there are more games out there that you can play to make the best of such a situation where the online service fails because of stuff like the recent DDOS attacks. Well... now that the so called "Distributed Denial of Service" attack has been mentioned, there is another important thing to point out.

A DDOS attack can be more serious than you think...

The first time we saw the explanation of what happened to the two big online gaming networks during the attack, many people classified it as a simple thing that shouldn't take a lot of time to fix, when in fact recovery can be pretty difficult once the attack happens. There isn't a magical instantaneous fix to a DDOS attack and this is because this type of attack is relentless. You can either prevent it before it happens at full force or suffer the consequences.

Picture this, imagine that you have your own small server with a service that accepts let's say 5000 people connected at once. Now imagine that a group of hackers start sending 5000 simultaneous connections to your server and fill each and every one of your available spaces so now your server thinks it is full and doesn't let anybody else in. You then get aware of the situation and you summon your security crew in order to fight back to dismiss those fake connections, but each time your people manage to clear some of them, more keep coming.

This is the equivalent of a handful of knights fighting an endless horde of orcs on a bridge. Unless you somehow close that bridge they will keep coming, but you won't be able to do that unless you can slay a great number of them and win some much needed time in order to been able to run and set the barricades. So once it happens you can only destroy the bridge (shut off the service) and re-build it (bring the service back again) once the battle is over.

But those orcs aren't even supposed to be able to get near you...


O.k we now agreed that the attacks were not as simple as we thought, but what about the companies themselves? Why is their security not strong enough to prevent or at least minimize the impact of these kind of attacks? The Christmas day incident was completely unnecessary in so many ways that it isn't even funny. This is even more disturbing if we consider that Lizard Squad gave a warning almost a month before Christmas day, so they were either too skeptic or just too lazy. All This means that companies are low-balling their online services, attempting to win a million while spending a cent.

If they are acting like this, then we must pressure them to put some more effort into their network security systems, just so that we don't have to live through those types of annoyances on a service that isn't free. Now on the broader side of things,what's really worrying about the situation is that these types of incidents shows a pretty weak side of the so called digital gaming era and this can mean only one thing...

"Online Digital only" total dominance has been set back for a while because of the attacks.

The lizards have managed to make a really nasty dent the iron clad trust that consumers used to have on these services and that means that the online digital only gaming environment is not be the safe happy place we thought it was. It has become a very nice and convenient service yes, but it has shown that if we ever fully dependent on it there is such a high risk that you may wake up one morning and find out that you have lost all of your games because X group of hackers woke up on the wrong side of their beds.

What Lizard Squad did can never be justified, but we can still at least take the few things that we could learn from the situation and give them some thought. It not only makes you a smarter consumer, but also makes you a wiser gamer and a more conscious tech user that wont be swayed by fads or smoke and mirrors. In any way, we as consumers have to be alert, not only in order to be ready for these kinds of happenings, but also to know the underlying causes and fight against them.

3 Creatures That Would Be Cool To Have As Monsters In Evolve

Evolve is one of those game concepts that is just awesome. If you haven't been following this game you must know that Evolve will be a first person shooter that pits 4 player controlled human hunters vs 1 big and powerful creature (that is also controlled by a player) in futuristic maps where both sides will have to play in a very strategic, but fierce way in order to survive. Up until now they have only shown us 3 creatures which are Goliath (A big bi-pedal grunt-like monster), Kraken (based on the legendary creature) and Wraith (which seems to be a monster with weird powers that was the result of human experiments gone wrong).

Those are just 3 monsters, but there could be a lot more of them coming in the future and that sparks the imagination to a point where we find ourselves thinking about other monsters that could appear in the game. For now let's see 3 of them.

Note: Don't take these as full featured ideas. They are just a imaginative glimpse of what it could be if these monsters were in fact included in the game.

Unicorn

Story for the monster:
The Unicorn could be a mutation caused by the dumping of chemicals and radioactive materials caused by an accident on a forest facility. The creature would be born of these mutations as the local fauna got contaminated. This creature would obviously look nothing like the mythical one as it will be twisted and deformed and its horn could have a form different from what we are used to see.

The Map:
An open facility found in a dense forest. This forest would be most likely covered in fog and will have places where the contamination is just too bad for humans to go in. This map would have several human outposts and natural places like a basin and a small system of caves to help the humans move around dangerous areas. In the human outpost there would have some devices that could be temporarily activated to help keep the Unicorn at bay or even hunt it down.

The Monster:
Unicorn would have its original equine form (horse-like features) with one big horn as the mythical Unicorn does. It would have blinding speed and use this horn to impale its unlucky victims. The creature would also use its hind legs to kick hunters and send them flying and lay on the ground (like a sleeping horse) to hide in the foliage. Unicorn would get even faster as it evolves and would get new powers like throwing lightning out of its horn and been able to jump and do a lunge attack. When the Unicorn gets to its highest level it would be able to use its own grown body to damage its opponents by just running through them without having to use its horn.

Notable Abilities: 
Fast speed, stealth

Monster cons:
It becomes vulnerable when failing to hit with a horn or lunge attack, questionable defense.

Hunter Strategy:
When hunters are pitted against Unicorn they should focus on slowing him down a little so they can damage it. They do so by using some left over mechanisms that are found on the human outposts in the forest. Humans could use the small cave systems to move around, but would not be able to camp there because toxic fumes would fill these passageways from time to time. So they have to move fast and set a perimeter on these mechanisms so they can trap the Unicorn in some sort of time continuum breaking laser barrier that will slow the creature down a bit. They will also have to protect the mechanism from been destroyed by the Unicorn because once it is gone, they will have to hunt the creature while it is a full speed for the rest of the fight.

Hydra

Story for the monster:
The Hydra would the result of thousands of years of artificial inter-species breeding of aquatic and terrestrial animals. Human scientists were basically playing with genetics until this beast was conceived and escaped the controlled environment, hiding in the deepest parts of a giant lake. Several years later the Hydra resurfaced and caused a disaster on a special facility that was built on this giant lake. Now humanity has lost everything that they have learned on this research because the creature doesn't let anybody to get near the facility so that is when hunters come in.

The Monster:
The Hydra would be the walking/swimming type looking sort of like a dragon with multiple heads. It would start as something big, but not that menacing to the hunters. It would be able to swim really fast underwater and shoot toxic or fire out of its heads. On land it would be a lot slower, but would be able to attack with its tail in addition to the toxic/fire attack. As it evolves it would be able faster on land, learn a third attack from its heads that could be a water blast or something similar and also be able to do lots of damage by biting with its heads. On its final evolution it would become huge and be able to ram the platforms on the lake so hunters would have to be very careful of where they step in. It is also important to say that the creature would breathe oxygen from the surface, so it cannot just stay in the water for too long.

Notable abilities:
Proficient at swimming, abnormal body size, good defense.

Monster cons:
Slow speeds while on land.

The Map:
The map would be a facility that goes around the whole lake with several "pads" on the lake itself. These pads would provide long distance harpoons that can be used to strike the creature down. On the facilities around the lake, the creature would have several spots to get out of the water and into the facility itself as well as tunnels to get back to the lake.

Hunter Strategy:
The strategy here is to be able to keep the creature at bay long enough to be able to use the harpoons. The effort really involves the whole team because this creature can cause a lot of damage especially when on its final evolution where it can ram the pads and throw hunter to the water where they are easy pray. First, they have to activate the harpoons by restarting the generators inside the facility, then they have to run to the pads as fast as they can and coordinate an attack.

Xenomorphs (Alien Queen)

Story for the monster:
Many of you know what Xenomorphs are like, but in case you didn't know they are a vicious alien species featured in the Alien movies as well as the Alien vs Predator ones. The explanation of this creature appearing in Evolve could be something as simple as to say that a human colony ship was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this case a player will play as an Alien queen that is pregnant and stuck in the middle of the map, sending its children to protect her.

The Monster:
On this case the player would be able to use different types of Xenomorphs, each with their own attacks. In the beginning, the alien queen will just be able to use the common Xenomorph that everybody knows, but as it "evolves" it will be able to use stronger types that will make things more difficult for the hunters. In case her minions fail to stop the hunters and they get too near, she would have her own attacks that she can use to defend herself until the hunters get far enough for minions to be effective again. Her minions can also damage the self destruct mechanisms by throwing acid at them and that would force hunters to fix them, giving the queen a break to pick them off. The cool thing with the alien queen is that the player will be able to have up to 3 minions roaming the place at the same time and would be able to switch them at will. When a minion is not been used it would have a normal A.I that will keep them roaming the place, but will be completely open to attacks.

Notable abilities:
Send up to 3 minions to do her bidding, her own attacks are quite strong

Monster cons:
Not been able to find and stalk the hunters in time could make it very easy for them.

The Map:
A human space colony that is now a wreck as the Xenomorphs have claimed it. It would have several corridors and rooms including air ducts and sewage disposal tunnels. The Alien queen would be right at the middle of the map and from that point it would be able to send her minions to protect her. The map would have 3 places where the colony's self destruct mechanism can be activated as well as places where hatches can be opened, sending any unlucky fellow (hunter or creature) to the vacuum of space. These hatches can be activated by either human or creature.

Hunter Strategy:
The main objective is to destroy the alien queen and this can be done in one of two ways. The hunters can tackle the queen head on in quick attack patterns until it is destroyed or try to activate the self destruct sequence and get out of there as quick as they can. It is a test of speed and consistency because the team would have to be very fast and precise on what they are doing or else the queen will get the upper hand and overwhelm them.

These are the 3 creatures folks, but if you have any other ideas you can share them on the comments section below as imagining stuff about a game is always fun. If Evolve manages to give us lots of creatures and also lots of hunters, it will be an epic experience.

Dreamfall - The Story Starters Guide (No Spoilers)

The first episode of Dreamfall Chapters has been finally released to the joy of adventure game fans world wide. For longtime fans, this game is a real must have, but if you are a newcomer you may find yourself lost in its deep and compelling story if you haven't played the previous installments which were The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Today, as a fan of the series I will try to give you a little insight of what the game is about while doing my best to avoid spoilers, just in case you are curious about this series of games, but have no idea about their story. I am going to try to be as generic as possible so I don't spoil any important details, so you can safely read at your own pace and try the games later if you want.

A) The World of The Longest Journey
The whole environment in The Longest Journey series goes back and forth between 2 worlds. The first one is called Stark which is based on reality, reflecting our world with the existence of real cities and the various occurrences of the human lifestyle with a cyberpunk touch, going from the most mundane of things to the most bizarre. On the other hand we have Arcadia, which is a world based on magic. This world looks and feels like your classic medieval fantasy setting consisting of villages, dungeons, exotic places, townsfolk, warriors, priests, warlocks and even dragons. On this world we also have different types of living beings that populate the realm and are not exactly human.

If we are going to name the notable villains in the first two games, we have a giant mega-corporation called Wati-Corp on Stark and a corrupt religious empire called The Azadi on Arcadia. Both of them will try to stop April and Zoe (See characters) from doing what they need to do in order to restore the balance between both worlds, but they are not connected in any obvious way. Giving any more details would spoil the fun of getting to know these crooks up close and personal, but you will see how each of them have their own beliefs / big scheme and how they put their respective plans in motion to basically enslave their corresponding worlds if they can't destroy them.

B) Characters
The main characters in the series go as follows:

April Ryan: April is the protagonist in the first game (The Longest Journey) and a secondary character in Dreamfall. She starts in the first game as an Art student in that discovers that she has certain powers that enable her to travel into another world. This discovery turns her life upside down as she finds herself in a struggle to save both worlds and ensure that neither of them meets a premature end. She will also discover that she doesn't know herself as well as she thought.



The Draic Kin: The Draic Kin are a race of mystical dragons that have the purpose of protecting the balance between worlds without directly interfering. Most of the time they will give messages and remind April of how important she is to both worlds. In some ways the Draic stand as the benevolent and wise gods of Arcadia and can take a human form at will if it serves their purpose.




Crow: Simply put, he is a magical crow that talks. He becomes April's friend in the first game and follows up to meet Zoe on Dreamfall. He is kind of corny and throws a lot of bad jokes, but he is also very helpful, giving clues to the both girls when they need them the most.





Zoe Castillo: Zoe is the protagonist of the second game (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey). She is a kind of depressed young woman who is living without any purpose in life. When the game begins she is already having it rough after recently dropping out of college and breaking with her boyfriend Reza. Her life takes a very different turn when in another one of her "dull and event-less" days, something happens that makes her share April Ryan's fate although not through the same means.




Reza Temiz: He is Zoe's ex boyfriend and one of the most mysterious characters in Dreamfall. Based on what it is known about him, he is some sort of a journalist that is involved with Wati-Corp in Stark. We also know that he is involved with the company's secret agenda (been the one that sets in motion the whole ordeal that Zoe lives through) and for some reason he vanishes without leaving a trace.




Kian Alvani: Alvani begins a warrior for the Azadi in Arcadia. He is sort of a paladin who fights to defend "The Goddess" which is the main icon of his religion and to destroy a resistance movement that threatens the empire. His faith is admirable, but his iron clad loyalty will become a problem to him as the story progresses and you will see why he is not as great and important as he think he is in the beginning.




The Vagabond: This mysterious being lives in a rift between both worlds and seems to serve as a guide to Zoe. This mystic will make few appearances, but will prove instrumental at giving you information about the grand scale of things. See him as a sage who will reveal what needs to be done and why.



There are many other characters in the story of The Longest Journey series, but these ones are the most significant.

C) The Story (Synopsis)
In The Longest Journey, the story start as an art student called April Ryan visits Arcadia by mistake and meets the White Dragon (See Draic Kin) who tells her that she is the heroine that will bring balance to both worlds. Just after that, she gets attacked by some dark force called "chaos vortex" and that's when she gets back. That surreal experience turns her world upside down as she discovers that she is a "shifter" (person who can travel between worlds) and begins her quest in her own world (Stark) even when nobody believes what she says. Soon, she starts turning skeptics into believers (mostly her closest friends) and as she gets used to crossing between worlds and begins solving problems on both of them, she becomes a threat to the dark forces that want to destroy the balance between worlds, so they will do whatever is needed to stop her. Her journey will take her to the deepest parts of Stark and Arcadia as she tries to solve the riddle of how she can save the so called "balance", involving her friends, new found allies, the Draic Kin and a magical crow that helps her through her journey.

Next in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, the story shifts to the life of a girl called Zoe Castillo. In the beginning Zoe's life has no purpose or direction as she dropped out of college and broke up with her boyfriend. Living in this predicament leaves Zoe with all the free time she could want, so as her dad leaves to a business meeting in another country she plans to make a party in her house with some of her friends. All seemed well, but while she was organizing the event her ex boyfriend Reza Tamiz appears and asks her to look for an important package in his apartment. Seen that they are still good friends, Zoe agrees, but after getting to his apartment she becomes involved in a big conspiracy that will lead her all the way to Arcadia where she meets an older April Ryan that has become somewhat of a leader in the fight against the Azadi.

Now Zoe who has become her own kind of "shifter", becomes an even more important piece of the puzzle as she struggles against both the Azadi and Wati Corp in the fight that will decide the fate of both worlds.

D) The Connection With Dreamfall Chapters
This part of the starters guide has big spoilers so if you really want to read it, click the show button, otherwise play the games first.

In the end of Dreamfall, Zoe Castillo is left in a coma by her own mother (she connected Zoe to a device called a "Dream Machine" that keeps her permanently connected to the dream world) because she did not wanted Zoe to reveal her newly discovered secrets. Now on Dreamfall Chapters Zoe begins in a comatose state while April Ryan appears to be dead and Kian Alvani is trapped in the Azadi prison at Marcuria, waiting to be executed. The story goes on, once again stressing the importance of Zoe to the balance between both worlds as The Vagabond sends her back to the real life so she could fulfill her duties. Up until the point where Zoe comes out of the coma, she had been living in some sort of limbo where she had developed special powers and used them by helping others when they had a nightmare while using a Dream Machine.

Wrapping it up
I hope that this little story guide helps to spark your curiosity even more so you can give a chance to this great series of adventure games. I wouldn't suggest you to skip the previous games and just start on the new one, but I'd be glad if this little insight into the story of The Longest Journey series of games gets you on the right track so you can understand what you will be seen and experiencing in Dreamfall Chapters.