Month: July 2014

Review: Dark Souls II: Crown of the Sunken King

Prepare To Die….Again

FromSoftware’s most recent release, Dark Souls 2, got its first episode of DLC. The first episode which is titled Crown of the Sunken King, was released on July 22nd on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. It adds 3 new areas, and 3 new challenging bosses and tons of new dangerous enemies.

The DLC area is accessed by killing one of the 4 major bosses in the base game, so new players cannot jump into the DLC right off the bat. However when the player is able to enter the area, they are met by incredibly difficult enemies who wield weapons imbued with poison. Players will soon realize that these new areas added to the game are in my opinion far more difficult than the base game. Poison and its effects on players, to those unaware of how potent it is in the game, builds up over time on a meter on your HUD. Once it fills up the player will be “poisoned” and will begin to drastically lose portions of health which can only be stopped by caring a specific consumable item.

Besides all of the poison in this challenging DLC, players also have to worry about an infestation of bugs that are slowly taking over the ancient subterranean city. In order to combat this, players will have to learn to get used to being outnumbered heavily by hordes of these bugs. In addition I suggest using a spear or halberd (Any weapon with reach) to take out these bugs since upon their death, they explode into yellow gas that can damage and even destroy your equipment!

If bugs and poison sword wielding foes weren’t enough to intimidate players, 2 of the 3 bosses certainly will.

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD

The two bosses I am talking about are Elana, the Squalid Queen, and Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon. Elana, who uses dark magic and pyromancy to combat the player, however seems to be a reskin of the base games final boss, Nashandra who to be honest wasn’t that hard to beat at all. Yet I personally believe the developers from FromSoftware realized this when creating Elana, she is far more aggressive than Nashandra and can even summon another boss from earlier in the game (Velstadt, The Royal Aegis) to fight for her. I myself died countless times before finally defeating her. What makes this fight so difficult yet fun is the fact that her pyro attacks can easily one shot a player if they don’t anticipate the attack. That and the fact that the boss she summons can club you too death with ease using his massive hammer/chime doesn’t exactly make this any easier.

Now onto the final boss, which happens basically right after you beat Elana. Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon was in my opinion the most difficult boss in the game, that or second to the Ancient Dragon. Unlike a game such as Skyrim, the dragons in the Souls games don’t just burn you a little bit, they incinerate your character. Both Sinh and the Ancient Dragon alike have fire breathing attacks that one shot any player, even if they are blocking. The only way to counter this is to dodge the attack. But what made Sinh a far more dangerous boss was the fact that unlike the Ancient Dragon who for the most part was a passive defender kind of boss fight, Sinh is incredibly aggressive. For example the Ancient Dragon in the base game may try to stomp on you, Sinh on the other hand will fly up in the air and then land directly on top of you. If that isn’t enough, he will try and whip you with his tale if you try to attack his hind legs, which just so happen to be his only weak point. Oh, and remember how poison is a thing in this DLC? Well Sinh, the Slumbering Dragon’s fire is tainted with it, players will notice this immediately when engaging him since his fire has a green tint to it. I personally turned off my own Stream of the DLC because I was so frustrated with this boss. Once I did defeat him however I had died 22 times, which was unparalleled by any number of deaths I had against a boss in the base game.

END OF SPOILERS

To summarize the first part of this 3 part DLC that is being released monthly, be prepared for far more challenging environments and enemies and be ready to die and die over and over again. Each episode of the DLC costs $9.99 and addition to adding new areas and enemies, they also add new story content and items, some of which I find useful. If you already own Dark Souls II, and haven’t already bought the first episode of DLC I suggest purchasing it. If you are looking for a challenging game that requires patience, skill and in some cases pure luck, I encourage you to by this game, because this game is easily the most difficult game on the market.

Finally, I am glad to say that FromSoftware is allowing some people who are in the media to play the next two episodes of DLC a couple days early, so expect a review from myself on the two follow up DLCs over the next two months.

My Score: 8/10

  • Adds more lore and story to the already impressive game
  • More enemy types and surprises that I didn’t mention above
  • 3 new bosses, 2 of which are extremely difficult
  • A beautiful setting beneath the surface in an underground, long forgotten city

– Hunter “Dallas” Gilbert

Bungie’s Destiny: My Shallow First Opinions

This is an Excerpt from my article I wrote for my school’s paper, The Round Up. This explains why I will be addressing the students at my school, Jesuit College Prep.

Truly an Epic Experience

                  Few gamers haven’t heard of Bungie, if they haven’t they certainly have heard of the Halo Series. So it makes perfect sense that many students at Jesuit may be “sick” on September 9th since Bungie’s new game, Destiny, will be released on the next gen and last gen systems. The hype behind this game has been growing ever since its announcement and hints towards its founding and early development can be seen all the way back into easter eggs all the way back to Halo 3: ODST back in 2009. The time spent on making this game along with the FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS spent on it development and marketing by Activision are signs that this game will be huge, a true juggernaut in the video game industry. [1]

Having played in the Alpha and Beta on the PS4, not to mention being handpicked to play it center stage at RTX ’14 against the developers from Bungie, I have to say that this game plays incredibly smoothly and is absolutely beautiful to look at. [2] The new universe that Bungie has created is simply spectacular. For all of you who haven’t the slightest clue about the game, have no fear I will inform you.

The game takes place in our solar system, set seven hundred years in the future in a post-apocalyptic setting. Before the our solar system as we know it simply collapsed humanity was experiencing a golden age of scientific advancements, however this changed when The Darkness came, and humanities colonies spread throughout the 8 planets simply fell apart and collapsed. Little is known about “The Darkness” but Bungie has stated that is the sworn enemy to The Traveler, a spherical white, celestial body that is now guarding humanities’ final city on Earth. (For all of those looking for what The Traveler looks like, simply google it and you will get the idea) The player (s), are given the role of Guardians, the last defenders of humanity who can use the mysterious power, simply referred to as The Light, which The Traveler has given as a gift to humanity. So now humanity looks to its defenders to fight off the various alien species that have taken over their colonies after the golden age ended and hopeful restore humanity to what it once was in its prosperous golden age.

Gameplay wise, the game plays and feels like a mixture of 2K’s Borderlands Series and Bungie’s past franchise Halo. So in other words the game is a first person shooter/RPG that drops the player in an open world where he or she can join in with other players to complete missions to further defend humanity. However the game will also have game modes that allow the player to engage in team and solo fights against other players, so if PVP is something you like, there will be plenty of it. Going into further detail there are 3 classes of Guardians the player can choose from. They are, the Hunter, who specializes in range combat and reconnaissance, a renegade if you will. Up next is the Warlock who combines weapons and powers from The Traveler to form a lethal support class that is a must have in team fights. Finally we have my personal favorite, the Titan, the Titan specializes in heavy weapons and explosives and can take a ton of damage before going down. Having played all of the classes at least once I have to say they are all balanced for the most part and all have their own perks and drawbacks.[3]

So will you join in with your friends, (hopefully after you have done your school work) and embark on your own Destiny come September and take part in the biggest game of this year, or will you wait for the yearly generic shooter made by Sledgehammer Games? I for one cannot wait to enter this incredible universe Bungie has spent years creating and hope that I will have the time to play it during my challenging junior year at Jesuit. Now are you ready, because your destiny awaits?

Hunter Gilbert ‘16

[1] http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/6/5686268/Destiny-costs-activision-500-million-to-develop-promote

[2] http://roosterteeth.com/members/images/image.php?id=3590256 , Me playing Destiny center stage at RTX’14

[3] http://www.destinythegame.com/game/guardians

Getting Started

Many people know for a fact that great things simply don’t happen over night. A person striving to start something, to be someone, is no different. In the end you are in control of your own destiny, you can either remain as you are, brushed beneath the carpet of society, or you can strive to be something more.

This realization that I am coming of age, and about to go to college in a year is finally starting to sink in. I for one don’t want to be under that “carpet of society.” People say if you want to be noticed, simply put your name out there, and the rest will follow. Taking this to heart I decided to start this blog, hoping to major in Journalism in college. I felt this would be a good way for me to practice my writing. It also might be a decent way for me to talk about my various opinions regarding Video Games & Entertainment, because as someone whose dream is to cover these two topics for a company after college, I have to start somewhere. So I decided to put fate in my own hands and be accountable, not letting anyone else pull me down from reaching my potential.

By doing this I hope it makes me a better person and writer, because honestly we can all get better at what we do. This essentially sums up what this blog will be about. Expect reviews, criticisms, praises and more from this blog regarding Video Games & Entertainment. Just remember when reading them, that they are purely my opinions, because if everyone has a right to a single thing, it should definitely be the freedom to think and believe in what you deem is right.

– Hunter “Dallas” Gilbert