This game is excellent, and a good spiritual successor to the first. I didn't know if I'd like it at first, since the graphic style is so different from the first game but it grew on me quickly. It's a lot of fun and worth the price already!

The game starts as any others of the type would; you’re thrown into your new farm and there are weeds and rocks everywhere.

Stardew Valley differs from Harvest Moon (particularly A New Beginning) in that there isn’t a tutorial period. I really appreciate this. ANB had a tutorial period that was, well, way too long. You had no freedom for an entire season, which was ridiculous.

Stardew, though, lets you do what you want. Do you want to be the most Serious Farmer Ever and only care about the Maximum Efficiency of crops and trees? Do you want to be the Casual Farmer who plants crops whenever but really concentrates on socializing?

Do you want to be a Badass Fisherman (or Fisherwoman)?

It doesn’t matter! (For the record, I’m closest to the Casual Farmer, though I’m being better about actually planting more crops in my second year.)

What impresses me the most about this game is the fact that it was the product of one man. Not a team, not even a few people; just one person. I keep thinking that when I play, and I’m constantly astounded by it. There aren’t many bugs, and when one does pop up, the developer (who goes by ConcernedApe) fixes them in a timely manner. I really can’t praise that enough.

There are AAA games that keep bugs for months, and they have full fledged teams. Yes, they’re more in-depth games, but still. Fixing bugs in a decent amount of time is really respectable and leaves a good impression on players.

The game is very fun; I can’t stop stressing this. There’s a combat aspect, which is mainly used in the mines. It’s not as in depth as Rune Factory, but it gets the job done. There’s also fishing, as I’ve said, and it’s a little more challenging than I personally prefer. That being said, it’s different from other games, which is interesting. While I don’t particularly enjoy the challenge sometimes, others do, and that’s fine!

The villagers are all unique, and there are ten bachelors and bachelorettes to befriend and potentially marry. Gay marriage is also an option, which I appreciate, since other games in this genre don’t allow for that.

I can tell that Stardew Valley deserves all the praise it’s been getting. If you ever enjoyed Harvest Moon or Rune Factory, or even if you’ve never played a game like this but are curious, this is well worth picking up. I think $15 is a steal, and ConcernedApe very well could have charged $30 for the work he did. I’d have paid that much, no question.

Full review with a few screenshots is here: http://thatwritingthing.com/impressions-stardew-valley/

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is a game that Gearbox has previously stated to be shorter in length than Borderlands 2, but longer than Borderlands 1. I’m not entirely sure how long it took me to beat Borderlands 2, but it took around 20 hours to finish The Pre-Sequel. It didn’t feel short, but some parts of the game seemed to drag on longer than others. That is not to say that the pacing in Borderlands 2 was perfect, because it wasn’t; The Pre-Sequel’s plot teetered back and forth between interesting and mediocre, and more often than not did I just want to continue forward to see if it would get better.

One of the most interesting characters from Borderlands 2 was Handsome Jack, and the Vault Hunters in The Pre-Sequel are working for him, albeit under a shorter name (without ‘Handsome’, in lieu of not having the mask in The Pre-Sequel.) He still has some enjoyable lines, and an amazing voice actor, and while playing though the game I actually wanted to see the character break down as his hopes and dreams were beginning to unravel. This did happen to an extent, but not to quite the extent I was hoping. Maybe I was asking for too much, I’m not sure. Still, it was refreshing to be able to get a look into some of the backstory of Jack, even if we never did get to find out who his wife/Angel’s mother was.

Speaking of which, the villain of The Pre-Sequel is Colonel Zarpedon, a Dahl chief trying to keep the vault on Elpis a secret via any means necessary. When she’s introduced, you feel as if she’s a real threat to you, Jack, and the entire moon, and throughout the game you’re reminded of this when the laser on Hyperion’s Helios base goes off as the noise it produces is unavoidable, and oftentimes you can’t help but look toward it to really make sure you’re not imagining things. Hence why I was very disappointed to not have Zarpedon show up in the game more, even just via radio. Unlike Handsome Jack in Borderlands 2, Zarpedon doesn’t really taunt you, she doesn’t acknowledge your presence throughout most of the game, and she doesn’t talk at all when she shows up as one of the last bosses. There are ECHO logs scattered about the game that give a little backstory to her character, which is nice, but it would have been nicer to see her more in the game. Not every villain needs to be like Jack, per se, but having one that really makes you want to finish the game and enact vengeance upon them definitely livens up the story.

Charming characters from past Borderlands games don’t make an appearance, and although this is understandable, as they’re all on Pandora, a nod or two would have been nice. The interrogation between Athena and Lilith could have been more interesting if at least one of the Vault Hunters from Borderlands 2 had shown up, since the ending of that game didn’t give any hint as to where they ended up. One could assume they returned to their respective homes, but that wouldn’t make much sense, as Maya left her home planet to learn, and she may not have been finished learning, and Zer0 probably didn’t really have a home. You may wonder why even Maya couldn’t have been there for the interrogation, as I did. After all, she and Lilith are the only two Sirens left, so you’d think they’d have bonded with one another.

The gameplay for The Pre-Sequel is enjoyable, as it mimics Borderlands 2 and adds a few twists of its own. Oxygen is a valuable resource and you have to find stations to replenish it when on Elpis’ surface. At first, this mechanic seems interesting, but it doesn’t take long for it to get old. I’ve never suffocated to death in game, but running out of O2, or Oz, was annoying, especially when it could have been avoided by having more Oz stations around. The low gravity allowed you to jump to places you never would have imagined before, and it was fun trying to find new things, but the abundance of invisible walls made that get old too. The vehicles are even less interesting than the ones in Borderlands 2, especially the Moon Zoomy, and oftentimes I considered not even going for a vehicle at all. There are Moon Zoomy stations where if you get a Stingray and immediately boost, you’ll get stuck in the ceiling. This makes me wonder how much play testing was done on the game, but I’ll get to that in a moment.


Guns are more of the same, except the E-tech weapons have been dropped and laser weapons added. Laser weapons are a direct upgrade over E-tech, as all laser guns are useful. Unfortunately, ammo costs more in this game, so filling up on laser ammo can wipe out your funds. The vending machines have a better selection in The Pre-Sequel, and it feels like you have a higher chance of getting a decent gun out of them. One thing that really bothered me about the machines, though, was the inclusion of the exact same Marcus lines in the Guns and the Bullets machines that Borderlands 2 had. That felt nothing short of lazy, especially since the design of all of the machines changed. I understand Marcus is the only gun supplier, and that’s fine, but new lines could have been recorded.

Bugs are rampant in this game, and it’s a shame; on True Vault Hunter mode, Jack stopped moving for me and I had to reload the game. I read up on the bug and others had similar ones, and even ones where the moonshot would just break. Quest items could float away, NPCs could stop talking when they needed to, and the vehicles loved to get stuck on things. Oftentimes I would get stuck on a rock trying to walk as if the texture was just placed too high. All of this could have been avoided if more play testing had been done, and it really felt like the game was rushed at the end of development for some reason. Assets being re-used, like the Marcus lines for the vending machines, also prove development was short timed, and also prove a bit of laziness. I didn’t expect a whole new engine for this game, but it looks like Borderlands 2. I also noticed a lot of NPCs wearing helmets in space, which is fine and makes sense, but I do wonder if part of the reason for this was to save on animating their lips when they talked.

Did I enjoy The Pre-Sequel? Yes. Would I recommend it? Not for $60. The gameplay is fun, but the bugs and lack of an immersing story make me suggest you wait for it to go on sale for $40 or less. Perhaps the DLC will change this, and I hope it does, but the shortcuts taken in developing this game make me worry.



BULLET POINT SUMMARY – The Good

Playable characters are well developed and fun.
PCs will talk back to NPCs and co-op partners.
Butt slams are enjoyable and somewhat useful most of the time.
Still lootin’ and shootin’.

BULLET POINT SUMMARY – The Bad

Zarpedon could really be fleshed out more, and be more threatening, a la Jack in BL2.
Oz/Oxygen is a pointless and tedious addition.
Game is very buggy.
Environment can get boring.
Story isn’t as engaging as BL2’s.
Too pricey for what it is right now.



View original review with pictures: http://thatwritingthing.com/borderlands-pre-sequel-write-review/

Marvel Heroes is an interesting game. It plays like Diablo, as in it’s an action RPG with loot drops and classes (heroes) to play as. That said, it has had an interesting history, at least as far as video games go. It was originally developed by Cryptic Studios under the name Marvel Universe, but it ended up getting cancelled. Gazillion Studios took over the rights and rebranded it as the name we know today, minus the 2015. That came in May of this year, though I expect it to change to 2016 next summer. We’ll see about that, though. Anyway!

I’ve been playing Marvel Heroes 2015 off and on since July, and I’ve been having a blast so far. I picked Rocket Raccoon as my first hero (the one you get for starting the game) since he looked like he’d be a lot of fun, and Guardians of the Galaxy was about to hit theaters. I played him for a bit, to level 12 or so, but heard he was getting his powers completely changed by the developers. This made me wonder whether it was worth the time leveling him up or not, since he was going to change anyway, and I ended up putting him on the shelf for later.

Since I enjoyed the game enough to buy a hero, I chose to buy Loki; his powers were pretty unique, and I thought that it wouldn’t hurt to try something new. He has the ability to make illusions and send them after the enemy, either by hitting an enemy with his scepter or using another skill to create several. I remember using the ability he gets far down his illusion tree pretty often – the one where his illusions drop down like a meteor. Unfortunately, Loki’s Ultimate (a skill heroes get at level 52) is pretty lackluster. I admit I don’t know much about the comics (and I do hope to eventually change that) but Loki’s Ultimate has him turn into a frost giant for 20 seconds, changing the skill bar to unique skills only the frost giant can use. This would be fine if the frost giant didn’t move so slowly and if Loki actually did this in the comics. The Marvel Heroes 2015 forums are full of people expressing their distaste for Loki’s Ultimate, so hopefully it will change eventually. I thought it was kind of neat at first, turning into something so huge and powerful, but moving so slowly killed it for me. I did get Loki to level 60, though, and that helped me level up other heroes, since the game gives an experience boost the more heroes you have leveled to max.

Other heroes I have bought or randomly acquired with in-game currency (Eternity Splinters, which drop once every 6-8 minutes or so) include Iron Man, Squirrel Girl, Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Human Torch, Thing, Taskmaster, Deadpool, Wolverine, Storm, Nova, Rogue, Moon Knight, Daredevil, Emma Frost, Punisher, Colossus, and Thor. So far, Human Torch and Iron Man have been my favorites to play, but I’ve just started to play Nova now and I haven’t touched Rogue yet.

As a whole, the gameplay is fun. I haven’t done any raids (end game content) yet, but even so I have felt some heroes needing more attention from the developers than others. Some heroes, such as Scarlet Witch, have not gotten their ’52 Rework, or 52 Review’ yet, which means she has no signature power. Like Ultimates, Signatures are unlocked at a certain level, though this level is 30, whereas Ultimates are 52. Signatures are usually pretty vital, and heroes without them really feel it. Not only that, but 52 Reviews usually end up with a complete overhaul of a hero’s powers. In other words, I haven’t played Scarlet Witch because I’m waiting for her Review.

Even with Reviews, some heroes are still lackluster, and need attention. Captain America is the one most people think of when they think of a hero who needs help. He’s squishier than he should be, and his signature doesn’t last long enough, with a minute long cooldown. (Most signatures have a 20-30 second cooldown, for comparison.) My boyfriend played Cap and really wanted to like him, but felt like he had too many problems right now. Hopefully Cap will get a loving readjustment, but we’ll see how long it takes for that to happen, if it ever does.

The free-to-play aspect of the game is pretty fair, especially compared to similar ones on the market. Eternity Splinters drop about once every 6-8 minutes, and are used to purchase heroes, box space, or team ups. 175 Eternity Splinters allow you to get a random hero. The downside to this is that you might get one you already have; if this happens you can level their Ultimate to have a shorter cooldown. The only thing I’ve felt needed to be purchased was box space, or Stash space. This cannot be purchased with Eternity Splinters and without enough boxes you will feel overwhelmed. Each regular Stash box costs 500Gs, which equates to $5. If you like the game, dropping $5 every once in a while isn’t a big deal.

The bosses are usually fun to play against, though when there are a lot of players on screen things can get laggy and you may miss Juggernaut charging you; this isn’t a big deal, though, since dying doesn’t really feel detrimental in any way. (Probably does in raids, but like I said, I haven’t done any of those yet.)

There are events that happen very regularly, some very grindy. (Get 2000 of an item to have Agent Coulson from SHIELD be your team up.) That said, the events as a whole bring life to the game, and the developers are constantly adding things. New heroes are being added once a month or so, and while some feel rushed out the door, others are almost perfect. All in all, I would recommend trying this game out if you’re interested in Diablo-like games and/or the Marvel Universe, especially since it’s free.

View with pictures: http://thatwritingthing.com/marvel-heroes-2015-review-keep-reviewin/

VLARDOONSA