Call of Duty:WWII Beta First Impressions

Off the bat the CoD:WWII is solid. I’ve managed to play the beta rather extensively and haven’t found anything that would prevent me from buying the game. It has all the aspects one expects from a Call of Duty game such as: create a class, fast pasted classes, snipers, shotguns, well designed maps.

Divisions

Divisions have replaced 'Create a Class'. Essentially, Divisions are 'Create a Class' with a special skill that provides bonuses to that class.  For more information please check out my YouTube video on Divisions.

There are five divisions that you can choose from. When you enter multiplayer for the first time you are asked to select a division. You can change your division later (well, at least you were able to in the beta). I don’t see this changing in live as the amount of rage on the forums would probably overload the servers causing someone to go into early depressions trying to fix it all.

Each Division has a “Base Perk” associated with it, or as it’s known, a Division skill. As you level up the class you unlock Division skills such as Sprinting for longer or extra attachments on your primary weapons.

Let’s go over the five Divisions and their skills.

Infantry (Assault Rifle Class)

Division Skill:

•          Bayonet

Division Training:

•           Additional Primary Attachment
•           Extra magazines
•           Moving faster while aiming down sights

Airborne (Submachine Gun Class)

Division Skill:

•           SMG Suppressor

Division Training

•           Sprint for longer distances
•           Climb over obstacles faster
•           Increased sprint speed

Armored (Machine Gun Class)

Division Skill:

•           LMG Bipod

Division Training:

•           Immune to Shell Shock and Tactical equipment
•           Take less fire damage
•           Take less explosive damage

Mountain (Sniper Class)

Division Skill:

•           Sniper Sharpshooter

Division Training:

•           Invisible to enemy Recon Aircraft while moving
•           Hidden to player-controlled Streaks
•           Silent movement

Expeditionary (Shotgun Class)

Division Skills:

•           Shotgun Incendiary Shells

Division Training:

•           Select both Tactical and Lethal Equipment
•           Throw equipment faster, farther and while sprinting
•           Resupply equipment from killed enemies

When you reach the final rank of each of the Divisions you will unlock the Divisions class specific prestige weapon. We couldn’t get this in the beta because the developers wanted to save some stuff for the game release, but it’s something to look forward to when the game releases on November 3rd.

Potentials Problems with the Game

Balancing

Weapons need a little bit of tweaking

Teams need balancing put into place. I’ve had many games where we got destroyed because the other team were all maxed leveled and we were all level 1-5.

Lag and game matching

I noticed a few problems with net code that just did the weirdest things. I would start shooting at someone and get half my magazine out into him, then I would drop dead and on the kill camera I didn’t even look his way. That was very frustrating and would be the only reason so far that I would consider not getting the game. There were also games where it felt like I was playing with a group of people on the moon. The lag was crazy. When I found P2P games that were in my own country then it was amazing and enjoyable. The net code problem is ultimately what will make or break this game. The game runs smoothly with very few problems. On the PS4 Pro it doesn’t run at 60 FPS. All my game recordings in at 29.9 FPS, which is good enough.

Melee

I personally don’t know the load out of WWII soldier but I’m sure they carried a knife. You cannot one hit melee kill people anymore (unless you have the bayonet). I’ve been killed many times due to the fact that when I sneak up to people and try to melee them, I hit them once, and then I need to hit them again. This does get a little annoying but one can learn to live with it I guess.

A note for streamers

If you own a PS4 pro and are waiting to stream, I would suggest not doing it. The stream comes out at 1080p but if you move, it becomes beyond pixelated. This is due to the PS4’s H264 encoder. This is really disappointing on Sony’s side. You are going to want to pick up a capture card if you want to stream at any kind of acceptable quality. The Twitch services at 720p may be better, but I don’t imagine it would be much better to be honest.

War Mode

This is a new mode to Call of Duty and is unlike anything we have seen before. It’s a lot of fun. You play as either the attacker or defenders. The object for the attackers is to try and take over a strategic building. You do this by having no defenders on the point and only attackers. Obviously, defenders must defend. If the attackers get hold of the first point then they move to stage 2/4. Stage two consists of trying to build a bridge to get the tank to the other side. This mostly just turns into a sniper convention. Stage three the attackers need to destroy an ammunition supply with a bomb. Only need to plant a bomb and defend it. Stage four you need to escort your tank to the final maker. However, if no one on your team is near the tank it will start to retreat. There are checkpoints so the tank won’t go all the way back to the start. If each of the tasks isn’t completed in the required time, the defenders win. This mode is a lot of fun with most of the games coming down to the final seconds. This does require your team to work together which can be next to impossible when everyone is trying to get as many kills as possible. However, it is indeed possible!

Overall

I can only speak from my multiplayer experience of the game here. The game is good. There is a wide variety of class and gun (could be a few more guns though, especially pistols), good selection of rewards and kill streaks. All the game modes we have come to know, and War Mode. We only go access to three maps in the beta but if the rest have the same quality as them it will be great. Maps are fresh and have a good variety.

Things I miss

The exoskeleton abilities. I know this sounds strange but I’ve becomes so accustomed to running on walls and double jumping. Game is still tons of fun and at least I don't have to deal with people flying past me. Thank you Sledgehammer Games for what looks to be an incredible game.

Modern Warfare Remastered

"Old games made new."

This has become a very popular saying as of late. With the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, companies have taken the opportunity to re-release old games with new High Definition texture packs. One of the latest to join the ranks is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Nostalgia

Personally for me, the original Modern Warfare was my first actual taste of a Call of Duty game. First time playing the game, I didn't even have my own copy - I went to a gaming cafe to play on their LAN computers with my friend. The multiplayer was so enticing that I spent the rest of the afternoon at the gaming cafe playing it. As you can probably guess, I purchased my own copy the next day so I could play in the comfort of my own home. Even though I had already played the multiplayer, I restricted myself from playing until I had finished the main campaign. Well, that didn't take long. Not because the campaign is short, but rather how the campaign's story grips you. All in all, it took me seven hours to complete. Thereafter I jumped straight into multiplayer and started racking up those kills.

Campaign

The remastered campaign is exactly what it sounds like. The entire campaign has just been redone with High Def textures and boy oh boy (I'm not assuming any genders here!), it looks absolutely incredible. My eyes had such a party with all the pretty pretties. It felt like I had been taken back in time. I was surprised at how much I had forgotten about this game. Then again, its been almost ten years since I first played this. Wow I feel old.

Multiplayer

As it was nine years ago. Amazing. Even better now that everything looks more beautiful thanks to that remaster. There is something almost special about the Modern Warfare multiplayer. I'm glad they managed to bring it back.

Release

Originally Modern Warfare Remastered was only available if you purchased Infinite Warfare - the only reason I purchased Infinite Warfare was to get the remastered game. Kind of sad actually. However, you can now purchase the stand-alone game in both digital and physical copies currently only for the PS4. Would be a good time to jump back into that multiplayer now with all the new faces. There is also double XP for entire duration of summer!

Final Thoughts

Modern Warfare is one of, if not the best, Call of Duty games to be released. Campaign is brilliant and the multiplayer is even better with hours of fun in store. I would recommend picking up the Remastered copy if you feel like playing this game again. Definitely worth it.

Still unsure? How about checking out my PS4 play-though? All videos are even in 1080p.



Modern Warfare Remastered Playlist

    "I'm serious and don't call me Shirley"

World of Warcraft Essential Addons for Raiding

Must have add-ons for Boss fights

TL;DR

Install: 

1. Deadly Boss Mods (or BigWigs) 😀
2. GTFO 👮
3. WeakAuras 2💓
4. Grid2 (Some kind or raid unit frames) 

Deadly Boss Mods (DBM) or BigWigs

These two add-ons do the same things but they are an absolute must-have. Yes, you can raid without it but its functionality is beyond useful.

But why?

https://cdn.meme.am/cache/instances/folder296/500x/59792296.jpg

In World of Warcraft, a lot of boss mechanics work on timers. Being able to predict when certain abilities are about to be used allows you and your raid team to anticipate and prepare for the ability accordingly. For example, when the raid should be stacked or spread out. This depends on what ability will be used next. If a boss ability puts an AOE debuff on a few players, then have them spread out or they will kill the entire raid team (This has happened so many times😥). DBM and BigWigs provide those timers. Everyone should be watching the timers so they can see what abilities will be used next and react accordingly. Often in raids the raid leaders will call out when abilities are going to be used but don't rely on them.

DBM also announces if you have certain abilities cast on you so others can try to move away from you (You should also move away from them generally). It also announces if you need to move to a specific player in the raid (When you need a few people to soak the impact of a meteor). It even has a feature that automatically replies to whispers while you are fight a boss letting the person know that you are in a boss fight😱. The real question now is why haven't you installed this add-on? 😝

Other Useful Add-ons

GTFO

This is an amazing add-on for people who are lazy like me and for someone who doesn't watch where they are standing. It makes a very loud annoying sound when you are standing in "stuff" on the floor or in the way of a boss ability that is being channeled in your direction. (Gul'dan's green Kamahamaha wave for example)

Just install it.

WeakAuras 2

WeakAuras is an add-on that allows you to make custom text, graphics and bars for all sorts of buffs, debuffs either on you, your target or your current focus. Have you ever wanted your resource bar in the middle of your screen that looks better than the default Blizzard one? Well then, WA can do it with ease. I use WA to also track my cool downs and ability procs as well as boss abilities. WA is more of quality of life add-on, though its usefulness is next to unlimited.


At first I was very hesitant about using this add-on because it can require a lot of setting up. It doesn't mean it does. If you use the add-on and go to an AMAZING website called  https://wago.io/ then it is very easy to use. Next to no set up time is actually required. This website is a collection of WeakAuras that people have made and have uploaded for FREE! All you need to do is search the WeakAuras you are looking for, copy the super long string of characters. Go in-game, type "/wa", go down to import and paste the string there. All that is left is to move it where you want it on your screen and you are ready to go!


All the Add-ons are free and are available from Curse.com

 

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I'll try to answer them for you. 

Good luck with your loot drops ;-) 

Nioh

For the purpose of this review, I will try to refrain from comparing this game to any Souls based element because it isn't a Souls game. It is a third-person action RPG with Souls-like elements mixed into it. No more Souls references 😀.

Stances:

One of the main fundamental differences between this game and other... games is its ability to allow you to change your stance. Stances drastically change your fighting style with the current weapon. You have three stance: High, Medium and Low. Low being your quicker slashes and high being more of your heavy attack moves. Medium is a combination of both with its own unique flavor.

 As you would expect, different enemies have different weakness to the different stances.

Generally, I stick to the Low stance due to its high attack speed unless I find I'm doing absolutely no damage to the enemies. This is mostly due to personal preference and play style 😃.

Living Weapons

This is when your weapon becomes powered up with your choice of Guardian Spirit and does tons of damage.

Visuals

On the PS4 Pro, this game runs extremely well and is very smooth. Did not experience a drop in frame rate at all. The game has some beautiful visual effects especially when your weapon has the Guardian Spirit ability activated.

Final Thoughts

This is definitely a must play game if you enjoy this genre of game. The best advice that I can give you for this game is to pay attention to what is taught in the tutorial, especially the Ki refund as well as learning from your deaths. This game can be very rewarding but at the same time very frustrating.

First play of the game (Unedited - Lots of death)

EvE Online - Beauty in Destruction

EvE Online is one of the most beautiful games I have come across. It takes place in space with al-most 8000 solar systems in the game this game takes massive to an entirely new level.

I started my EvE carrier back in 2008 and played on off for about four years. It wasn't until 2012 that I really started playing EvE consistently. EvE is a game that is continuously evolving. More content is added with every major patch (currently every 6 weeks).

A little about Eve Online:

Three year ago on the 28 of January 2013 one the biggest internet space battle took place with more than $300 000 USD worth of internet space ships being destroyed.The effects of this battle are still being left on the EvE ingame market with minerals like Tritanium and Pyerite still a good.

Another notable battle was the battle of M-0EE8 were the first ever Keepstar was killed. The final moment were absolute spectacular showing off the new explosion animations.

https://cdn1.eveonline.com/community/devblog/2016/siege_m-oee8/keepstar_explosion.mp4


While EvE Online has some of the most breath taking scenery and visual effects its also one of the most brutal and unforgiving games I have played. First rule of EvE, don't fly what you can't afford to lose. This is all to true.

Space battles. Who doesn't like space battles? All the hard work of mining materials, building ships and making ISK need to lead to something. The answer to that is big glorious space battle with your Corp mates and Alliance members. Fleets can range from a few members to thousands of people joining together multiple fleets. Strength in numbers, or in the number of capital ships you can jump in at a moments notice.

I have spend most of my time in EvE mining and building. I really enjoy building and then selling it on the market. There is something almost uplifting, honorable about know that out of all those ships in the fight you are watching, some of them were build by me. I have build everything from rookie ships to capital size ships. Have also done invention and build print research to build all the components to go on the ships. Hardest part is determining which item to build since there are so many. I have often had my manufacturing queue filled. I do also enjoy the occasional fleet  to lose some of my hard earned ISK's. I often fly Logistic as it is most commonly in demand, however the kill mail system needs a redo as Logistic polits (Polits who have little to no offense capabilities. Pilots who use shield and armor repairers to keep the fleet alive are the only ones who don't really get a reward other than not dying. I supose it is a really good felling when you mange to save a fellow pilot who is in deep hull) All we are asking for CCP is to be on the kill mail, at the very bottom is fine with us!

Last I would just like to say that there are no Capitals in Providence. We don't own any Capitals what so ever :-D

Horizon Zero Dawn

First off, let me start by saying that this has got to be one of the most gorgeous looking games out there. I am running it on the PS4 Pro (so maybe I have some advantages over the normal PS4 and PS4 slim) but wow, this game is absolutely beautiful. The main character Aloy is also extremely beautiful, but that's another discussion for another time ;-)

Gorgeous cinematography and game play aside, it's also an extremely fun game with a particularly easy combat system that rewards you for using the correct ammo type and for hitting animal / machine weak points. Your main weapon is a bow that shoots a variety of different arrows, each having their own strengths (Fire, electronic, precision and even frost arrows). Luckily, you have a few other weapons at your disposal, such as a spear for close ranged attacks, traps and trap launcher guns (Probably my favorite weapon when I use it correctly).

Horizon Zero Dawn has a lot of Tomb Raider aspects to the game, but with more of the free world aspect from the Far Cry games. Don't worry - you don't have to walk everywhere as you will unlock the ability ("special magical voodoo stick" as I like to call it), that allows you to take over some of the machine animals so that you can ride and use them to attack or transverse the environment. The game map is absolutely massive with different dangers around every corner or, in this case, every hill.

"All we do is gather gather gather then we craft" (sung to the tune of "All I do is win"  by DJ Khaled). Okay, it's not that bad and you can buy a lot of the things you need. A lot of games are going for this approach nowadays where they want you to craft items. I agree - it does give the game a more realistic aspect, but I still find it annoying. I wanna shoot and blow up stuff. However, Horizon has done it in a way that makes it tolerable. They have done this by giving you decent amounts of produces from gathering. This eliminates you having to cut down the entire forest because your character is so unbelievably bad at making arrows. Like, seriously? You live in the futuristic Hunter-gatherer times and you can't make arrows? How did you get this far? Thankfully, Horizon doesn't do this but rather goes for the "balanced" aspect giving you higher quantities when you gather. You still have to collect but you don't have to spend four days collecting to stock up your arrow collection because you went to Storm Trooper shooting academy.

If you have a PS4 and are looking for a new game, especially one that you won't finish in a couple of hours, then go pick up Horizon Zero Dawn. I highly doubt you will not enjoy this game. Unless, of course, you hate Tomb Raider, Far Cry, some gathering, bows, dinosaurs, machines, fun and gorgeous looking games. If this is the case. Minesweeper is the game for you!

This game does a lot of things right and you can see how much attention to detail went into the creation of this game. Have a look at each strand of hair on Aloy's head. Seriously. Look at the expression they make with the characters eye brows. There are a lot of small details that make this game absolutely incredible - besides the gorgeous graphics, fun combat (you can ride machines and shoot arrows at others while on the back!), intriguing story and lovable characters. Overall its an extremely solid and well-polished game.

Have a look at some of the footage from my live stream playthroughs of the game. It may contain spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn you!

All images were taken on the PS4 Pro and are at 3840 x 2160 (4K Resolution)

Tomb Raider Definitive Edition Gallary

Graphics have come a long way in gaming. I remember playing Tomb Raider on my PS1 many years ago and thinking that it was amazing but look how far they have come. The level of detail is spectacular. As someone who is passionate about photography I look forward to the improvements that gaming graphics will take over the next few years.

These are my screenshot from my latest play through of Tomb Raider on PS4. I use the share button to take all the screenshots. I was rather impressed with the outcome. Was also very easy to get the screenshots off the PS4.

As you can see I definitely enjoy the lens flair produces by the games graphic engine.