Review: The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition – Some Things Aren’t Worth Reviving

March 20, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Pros:
+Insanely fun hack’n’slash mechanics in late game progres
+Creative Character Designs
+Level designs are beautifully artistic and lively
+Use of item pick-ups is unique and different
+Weapon attack rotation system is deeply intuitive and will require some thought
+Tower of Illusions adds an immense amount of gameplay

Cons:
-Cussing.. Sooo much cussing that it seems to be there just to be there.
-Maps could use a bit of redesigning as many of them seem rather.. The same.
-Major plot holes that just never quite get filled in

Originally released on PlayStation 3, The Witch and the Hundred Knight hit the shelves just a mere two years ago, and gained a decent amount of fans who wanted something new. Like any Nippon Ichi Software game, The Witch and the Hundred Knight has their unique touch of using anime like graphics, and anime-like graphic novel story telling. This time around the game has been launched for the PlayStation 4 with upgraded graphics and framerates, but with only one minor addition – Tower of Illusions that adds around 100 floors for fans to smash through with some difficulty later on.

When playing a game that has been remastered, many of us expect to see a game that has been heavily upgraded. To see a game that has new mechanics, new graphics, more content, and all the bugs and kinks fixed by the time it launches. Issue here? The remastered version, rather the Revival Edition doesn’t see many upgrades, if any at all. Instead it’s rather hard to see where the game has been remastered at all besides frame rate and slight changes to the graphics where rough edges have been decently smoothed out. Besides that frame rate drops intermittently happened when combat became graphically intensive for the games engine, but even caused the PlayStation 4 to significantly warm up, something we’ve not encountered outside of graphically far-more intensive games such as Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and even Bethesda Zenimax’s Fallout 4.

While The Witch and the Hundred Knight seems to attempt improving upon itself the game is still rather fundamentally flawed in every aspect that was wrong with the initial launch. While the story can be said to be original, creative, and or like an anime, I’d have to disagree at almost every statement to the fact. While it is rather entertaining for around the first six hours, I found myself bored by the three hour mark due to repetitious combat, the overly absurd amount of cussing that comes out of Metallia’s mouth (Metallica in Japan). While the unprecedented use of foul language can be amusing to some, to players like myself, it was a quick turn off, and one that made me want to skip every cutscene possible, but for the sake of the review I didn’t. Fans of JRPG’s such as myself should be used to something that attempts to push the boundaries, in this case, it was a little too much, but nothing near as bad as the massive amount of plot holes, unexplained events, and poor character development that happens. When it comes down to it, Metallia’s reasoning behind summoning our poor character “The Hundred Knight” is to bring revenge upon those who wronged her, without knowing who they are, we assume they’ve wronged her horribly. The first victim was quite easily one that was understandable to not fear, her mother, which she quickly turns into a rabbit, and she lets horny other male rabbits chase her mother off into the woods. Issue here? It was odd, a portion of a story that quite easily made me question the design choice, and even the choice as to what made her hate her mother just this much. Without it being explained, I shrugged my shoulders and continued trucking on to uncover more of the story.

All that I came to really uncover? She summoned the One Hundred Knight in order to expand her swamp due to his power and his strengths in combat. Well also the fact she can’t go where no swamp land is left. With only 100 days to live, 99 if you count out the tutorial, The Witch and the Hundred Knight troubles itself with explaining why Metallia has so little time left. Only assumption we can make is that she is cursed or she screwed herself over completely somehow. While the campaign does have some redeeming factors such as its comedy relief, the title completely breaks the trend we’ve come to know Nippon Ichi Software for, which in ways is a redeeming factor for the title. If they had left the story out? The Witch and the Hundred Knight would be an astonishingly interesting hack-‘n-slash title that wouldn’t need a campaign due to its creative use of combat and puzzles.

When stepping away from the campaign, as stated, the game has many redeeming qualities that to some can be repetitive, but to others will be enjoyable. When looking at the game mechanically, our titular hero in this story – the Hundred Knight- is rather enjoyable. Combat with him is unique as weapons can be assigned in five slots. If players set these up right, his weapons can unleash a devastating combo that can quite easily place enemies out of combat and force them to become Knights food to regain GCals or Gigacals. These Gigacals are essentially Knights way of staying energized for the fight. Starting at 100 they will quickly begin to be consumed as Knight enters combat, explores the map, or even healing over time upon taking damage. While raiding buildings he will even consume his Cals in order to raid buildings where he can find unique items.

Combat in the game can be creative even though it requires constantly smashing on the square button. But it gets harder than just that when players are looking to dodge, block, and isolate enemies in order to weaken them enough to become food. If done wrong? Players will find themselves surrounded by enemies if the enemy isn’t even fast enough or a button order is messed up. The only issue here? It becomes a game of isolate the enemy only to beat them down as quickly as possible. Unfortunately these mechanics are all that makes the game unique outside of the fact you can’t use items found in the field. They must first be extracted from the Knights gut by returning to Metallia’s little home base before they can be equipped or left unused for the time being. Downside of this? It does begin to become a lot of items to sort through rather quickly.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition – PlayStation 4 (Reviewed)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Cost: 39.99 USD
Release Date: Now Available

The last redeeming factor is what many would know as an Endless Tower. Sitting at around 100 floors, the Tower of Illusions is a place where players can attempt to scale it by completing floor objectives. For a short while this includes quickly dispatching enemies through beating them up. As enemies are defeated and floors are scaled, the game grows increasingly difficult, enough to the extent that the game could quite easily make several players beat their heads into walls in an attempt to try and make the agonizing pain stop as floors become too difficult. If that happens? Go back out to the main area, level up some by completing the story, and revisit the Tower of Illusions to see just how good you can do. While this may seem fun for a short bit, again, it grows repetitive as players will find themselves smashing square while they aren’t fighting through hordes of enemies that they may be unable to beat in the long run.

With all this being said, if you are one for a game filled with plot holes that aren’t quite filled, cut scenes make little to no sense, and constantly smashing square; this is a game for you. If you are one for a deeply intuitive game that requires plenty of thought and understanding for situational awareness? It’s advised to look elsewhere, but for those who love JRPG’s like this? The game is right up your alley and will keep you busy for hours on end as you uncover the lands around you, its secrets, and attempt scaling The Tower of Illusions. Unfortunately? Even then this game could be a bit more troublesome as even that might just get repetitive as well. Though if you are one for a game with a 29.99 USD to a 39.99 USD price tag? This one may just be for you. If you have a PS3 and can find it on sale? That might be the better choice as many of the flaws from its original release remain intact and Tower of Illusions seems to be the only addition worth noting in the scheme of things.

Our review is based on a review copy that was provided to us by the games publisher. For information about our ethics policy please click here.

Final Score: 6 out of 10

About the Writer:

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: Bombshell – Little Chick, Big Guns, and Lots of Explosives Part 2

March 20, 2016March 20, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Pros:
+Big weapons that pun the female life
+Amazing story that gives our heroine a 90’s video game start
+Map designs using top down design offer a delightful Diablo-esque experience

Cons:
-Requires a decently powerful PC to play
-Controls on keyboard may be slightly disorienting to non-PC gamers
-Quest NPCs can be difficult to find

Earlier Dustin wrote his piece on Bombshell, a game we have both been taking on quite a bit of. Due to my time not being as free as his, I’ve been working on it here and there, but also dabbing a bit more at the problems I’ve found with the game. While many of his pro’s and con’s are much like my own, we can always revisit his review to get a small recap of what was said. Today? Mine is adding on a bit to what has already been said, but in another perspective.

Bombshell as you’ve already read previously is a game that wants players to be explorative. With much of the map being open through each zone, the game features both high-paced action, puzzle-like features, and many RPG mechanics we’ve seen in games like Diablo, but now with a touch of 3D Realms’ infamous touch of what can only be said as Duke Nukem or Rise of the Triad. The main star as we know isn’t your badass cigar chomping Duke or even one of our insanely kill-crazed stars of Rise of the Triad. Instead we’ve gotten our rather unique Shelly aka “Bombshell” who brings back the use of one-liner’s as we’d always hoped would happen.

Much like the QuakeCon hands-on we did, Bombshell utilizes the WASD setup while also utilizing the mouse for attacks for those who prefer mouse and keyboard. While mouse and keyboard do make combat a bit easier, I myself preferred plugging in the Xbox One controller and going from there. Unlike the ease of use with controller, traversing maps in order to get past puzzles was troublesome at first with mouse and keyboard, which made someone like myself incapable of thoroughly enjoying the game until my son, Dustin, had shown me that the controller does make this a bit easier. While designs for mouse and keyboard seem as if they could use a bit more work, Bombshell is still a solid game when it comes to exploration, and even traversing terrains. In the long-run, however? That isn’t the case as many of the settings seem as if they are re-skins of the past ones in order to create a bit of uniqueness to them. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this done though, take a look at the Diablo franchise, many of the maps in each game are re-skin upon a re-skin, but with slightly newer attacks for each enemy.

Back on the note of Bombshell, however, the game does manage to make a few unique throws that made the game interesting. As with any game, weapon variations are of importance, and take credit due to the fact each one is not the same. With limited ammo being available without vendors, each weapon will be heavily utilized. The most common for myself was the Mother Flakker, the games attempt to be creative with a shotgun. This gun does deem itself as important as it quickly disperses enemies near by while the other guns still do the job, but just not as effectively. If raining bullets is your idea of fun, there’s plenty of that to go around since each weapon is unique, and offers devastating blows as fans begin to level up their character and each gun. This improving upon the RPG elements we’ve become rather familiar with over the years. The only thing that we truly miss? Being able to find new variations of each gun to add elemental damage such as fire, poison, bleeding, etc. If that were to be implemented? Bombshell would just get all the cooler since its metal background music pitches the sound a bit more than one would expect.

Though Bombshell is sound in many of the areas pointed out in the previous review, Bombshell does have one massive underlying issue outside of jumping across large gaps; the map. While exploration is a nice feature to have, with limited time the game is almost too big, which can cause a bit of trouble in the long run, and that trouble is quite irritating to say the least. While Dustin was capable of getting around quite well, I wasn’t able to spend as much time as he did on the game, and that being said, it was quite hard to do any of it like he had. Finding objectives was quite difficult without pulling up the full map to find out where pings were at on it that give an idea of where objectives are. This lead to having to back-track a numerous amount of times in order to complete side missions, which awarded little, if anything at all due to the progression having already been made. While hidden objectives are present that require a certain gun or item to open, there’s still a bit of disgruntlement to be had since those guns may or may not be unlocked at the given time.

Bombshell – PC (Reviewed)
Developer: Interceptor Entertainment
Publisher: 3D Realms
Cost: 39.99 USD
Release Date: Now Available

While mechanics can be troubling, Bombshell redeems itself by offering up hours of gameplay and high-end graphics if your computer can run it in that state. While ours isn’t high-end, we did manage to play the game on medium settings at decent frame rates in order to enjoy it. I personally found the game quite intriguing, creative, and fun, but as the Old Man Gamer, it’s a game that does have its flaws. Once flaws such as the map designs and enemy types that variate very little between each other are kinked out? Bombshell is a game that has a lot to offer, but until then? It’s just fun to blow shit up as my son says.

Our review is based upon the final version that the publisher provided us with. For information about our ethics policy please click here.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

About the Writer:

David Murphy is B.A.T.G.R.’s behind the scenes man who helps get things up and going as well as keeping things in order. Don’t be surprised to know that the old man contributes rather heavily to editing, news, and information he digs up so that editorials as well as articles are done properly. He also likes Fallout… A lot. We’re not sure he’s not secretly the Vault Boy in disguise.

Cheap @$$ Gamer: Gaming isn’t just for PC or Consoles. Pick Up That Tablet!

March 20, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

I’ve reported a few times about my passion for free-to-play games, how to save money, and even what to do if you just don’t have the money in general. Today I’ve decided to take a look at one of my passion’s that some of the hardcore of the hardcore don’t consider a part of the gaming genre; tablet gaming on Android and iOS. This passion of mine has come around recently as it has become easily accessible to almost anyone. By anyone I mean literally almost everyone that has a smart phone or a tablet. Heck even Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 have implemented a decent amount of mobile games to their operating systems.

A few of the games that we’re going to talk about might be free-to-play or even come at a small cost. There’s even a few that cost almost the same price as their console or PC counterparts, but they’re still worth a go if you’d rather have them on the go. Granted the tablet versions may not just cut it in the end. Luckily for us, tablet gaming is rather inexpensive and easily enjoyable by anyone.

When looking at tablet gaming there’s always the question about App Permissions, memory use, and well performance as tablets are beginning to get the power treatment for gaming and usability. For many of the games listed the tablet used was a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. As mentioned in our review, the Tab S2 is a powerful, powerful tablet, but it’s not anywhere near the Nvidia Shield, which is something we’ve been tempting to get our hands on for several years now. One of these days we will if we’re lucky enough to hear from Nvidia or even get a chance to have one that we come across in the wild. Till then bare with us as the S2 is a powerhouse and does quite well.

On the first of the list is Vainglory. For many MOBA fans, the title brings an interesting aspect to the well known genre. One that has offered a unique blind of both touch and the subtly of high paced action. With characters ranging from Guardian, Assassin, Jungler, Support, and Warrior, the game offers a unique blend of familiar mechanics on a one lane map with objectives off to the sides. Luckily the game offers out some unique twists at every corner as all characters can be earned by simple gameplay. For those wanting a character that’s not accessible instantly, a few dollars (around 7 USD a character) can purchase a single character. While this alternative is there, it’s advised to save this for unique skins that get posted from time to time or even Early Access characters that may fit your preferred play style.

Next up on the list is a tower defense game I’ve found myself enjoying quite a bit when on the go. It has worked great on both my HTC One M9 as well as the Galaxy Tab S2. The game is called Epic War TD 2. TD standing for Tower Defense. The game idea is simple. A war has broken out. Your objective is to play turrets in a precise fashion in order to keep enemy forces at bay so you can defend your territory, but all this is not as easy as it sounds. The game requires patience, a quick mind, and the ability to swap out turrets faster than they can be placed. This means tactical thinking is a must for those wanting to spend a decent .99 cents or rather 1 USD. The game is gorgeous for being a tablet game and stands with a very simple and streamlined HUD for those looking to play. The game can be found on iOS and Android much like the previously mentioned Vainglory.

Next up on the list is Implosion – Never Lose Hope. The unique thing about this game isn’t that it’s just beautiful, but it plays extremely well for being on a tablet. With a rather chunky analog stick and a nice implementation of action command buttons, Implosion – Never Lose Hope is a game that does what most haven’t done on tablets quite well. It’s unique blend of high action AAA like graphics and mechanics keep it alive even though maps can get rather repetitive, but not enough to make you want to quit. Instead its blend of in-app purchases to gameplay don’t take away from the overall experience. While it’d been nice to see the game come to life on say the PlayStation Vita or Nintendo 3DS we can’t be disappointed at what the game has to offer. The boss fights are unique, tough, and will ground players down in the post-apocalyptic setting the game has aimed for. However, it’s not quite like our next game that’ll rip at the hearts of fans as it has already been doing on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One for quite some time now.

This War of Mine is a breathtaking experience. For 4.99 USD on Google Play or 3.99 on the Apple App Store, we’ve been able to play this game for some time on both console and PC. This War of Mine takes place in the fictional city of Pogoren, Graznavia where a group of survivors find themselves hiding together in order to survive the ongoing war. With a ceasefire seeming to be no where in sight, fans must take to this strategically challenging survival game by building up their house, going out at night to find supplies, and somehow managing their survival so that their characters don’t die. This includes making use of limited supplies, surviving break-in’s that will cause loss of food, and even surviving hostile enemies when going out at night. Here character traits do matter as does the characters back-packs as these will determine the supplies they can carry back on their adventure outside of the house. If that doesn’t sound like fun, the next title we have coming up might seem all-to-familiar to some while others may find themselves scratching their heads.

Blizzard Entertainment has been known for their massively successful franchises such as Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, Heroes of the Storm, their Upcoming title named Overwatch, but also their famed card game by the name of Hearthstone. Originally launched a few years back on P.C., Hearthstone has taken the world by storm since it allows a TCG like experience on mobile platform and PC. Luckily the game allows fans to go from PC to handheld quite easily as the account that you use will be your Battle.net account so that you can migrate your progress seamlessly without any hassle. Much like any free-to-play, Hearthstone does have in-app purchases that allow players to buy the raids at full cost with real money or save up gold via playing in order to unlock them. This also goes for booster packs as well, which means the free-to-play portion may take newcomers a bit longer to build up to the builds that veteran players have.

Now we do have a few MOBA’s on here, but there is another worthwhile mentioning as it is quite fun, but at the same time different from my favored go-to mobile MOBA Vianglory. This one is called Ace of Arenas. Ace of Arenas uses the well known hack-‘n-slash mechanics we’ve gotten used to with many Android and iOS based RPG’s and Shooter genres. What this game does differently, however, is take the idea and has gone MOBA with it. With graphics being slightly lower that of games like Vainglory or even Implosion, the game still offers a wide array of characters and player matches allowing for a fun if-not challenging time. The game does feature a free-rotation as well as a unique use of a gem system, which many may seem slightly familiar with thanks to MOBA’s like League of Legends.

While it’s hard to say there aren’t other games out there, there is a hard-time finding games that we know a majority of you will like since there are other genres out there. We’ve seen Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Grand Theft Auto, Minecraft, and a numerous amount of other games out there. We’ve played so many of them to even bring this article it’s been hard to choose what ones we know would be best for gaming on a budget. Because a majority of games on Android are free-to-play, we decided to grab a few of the hardcore games out there just to show you what is there, and what you can enjoy for free or at a cheap cost, and on-the-go.

Till next week, here’s your Cheap @$$ Gaming article.

About the Writer:

Review: Tom Clancy’s The Division – Dividing Players from Each Other

March 19, 2016March 22, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / 5 Comments

Pros:
+Well developed story and world that are truly believable
+Manhattan areas can be visited in real life if players took a map of the game
+Itemization plays a key role for players looking to play
+Customization options for clothing are intense

Cons:
-Streets of Manhattan at times feel rather empty
-Dark Zone can at times feel a bit overwhelming

Editor’s Note: Due to the game being an always online title, we’ve decided that the review will be considered in-progress until we are comfortable enough to state this is a finalized review. This means with added content and fixes, we may or may not change this review. If it is updated, we will have an “Updated” section that will compare both new and old content or bugs or what have you in the long run of things. Thanks for your understanding. As this review is in progress, it’ll be edited in the near future to add in true-end game and post-Challenge mission thoughts in the very near future.

When we think of New York, we think of a city that is strong, that can stand back up after taking a rather large blow to the chin before standing back up straight and spitting a few drops of blood out. In turn the city has been famous for returning back to its normal habits shortly after. The city is known for its tragic events such as 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Kew Gardens Train Crash, and who knows what else to come in the long run of things. However, what would happen to New York if a virus that was altered by man had ravaged through their city streets during the peak of holiday shopping? On Black Friday, for the story sake, this designer virus has been set free on contaminated money. With the virus having been created for its highly infectious rates, but also it’s severity once the infected host is hit by it.
Much like any Tom Clancy story, The Division follows a rather familiar path for any who have played franchises such as Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and or Rainbow Six. In this title a secret agency has been created just for such an event where both local law enforcement and even the military have fallen. In turn The Division agents would be activated in order to help maintain peace, but to also bring forth the chance to give the world its former glory once more. This goal rings true for much of the game as fans have already taken off across the virus ridden streets where enemies such as Rioters, the Cleaners, and even the Riker’s have taken to the street in order to claim territory and survive the outbreak the best they can. Your goal? To rebuild the city, to rebuild the city your characters knew and loved. To stop a virus that has gone out of control and once more help the city stand for what it did before the weaponized super virus had been unleashed upon the world.

As our game gets underway the narrative opens strong. The virus is introduced to us, Black Friday is given as it is, and eventually the danger of the virus is stated. Shortly after we are introduced to The Division agents who can be your friend, your partner, your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter, your co-worker, or even quite literally your best friend. Once activated, the agents were trained to drop everything and head off to do their task. Their goal is unique, but at the same time quite simple as we are introduced to each of the members over time as well as the idea that the first line of agents are gone and now the second wave are going in. This is where your character comes in and plays a rather pivotal role in the restoration of Manhattan.

Much like any game recently, the story isn’t the best. Unless you find hidden cellphones, situation files, echo’s and even survival guides, your story is convoluted and troubled. Enemies will have a poor backstory meaning their history will play almost no role to you and will be rather dull. They’ll seem weak and underdeveloped, which is a problem with the game from time to time, but eventually it’ll flesh itself out. However, our first goal in New York wasn’t to discover all the collectibles as I had before the game was over, but instead did so as the game progressed, which even made establishing a home base as our first task take a rather seemingly long time. Once established there are a few things that become a drastic requirement: find a doctor to setup a medical wing, find a technician for the technician’s wing, and even find a man for the tech wing in order to get the ball rolling on restoring the city.

In this base of operations, players are able to do several things. Purchase equipment via in-game credits, sort through their stash to obtain Dark Zone equipment that has been decontaminated from the virus, and even craft items as wanted. Though that is not all that can be done in this base later in. As players progress through the game each wing can be upgraded through gathering supplies from encounters. As these wings are upgraded, new abilities and modifications for abilities begin to unlock. This includes talents and perks that will allow players to become more powerful with time in order to approach end-game content where the will truly challenge themselves through both the Dark Zone and Challenging Difficulty for missions. These new attachments also open up vendors where players can spend their Dark Zone credits and even a weapons vendor for advanced weaponry. Note that these weapons are not cheap and will require a pretty penny if you are one that’s low on credits. Farming will then become your best friend in order to buy any of his exotic gear.

While I could continue on about both progression and the base itself, the game is much larger than that, and because of that there is much more to focus on, which can lead to some issues with the length of the review, but hopefully you’ll hang on.

A Large City, a Play Void of Life, and an Empty Place to Visit

We all know that trekking through Manhattan is not an easy task by now. We’ve all possibly ventured through the cities streets in search for resources, combat, and helping take out any enemies that may be around. This includes the idea that the city should be under constant siege as enemies such as Rioter’s continue doing their jobs as street thugs. Their control of some of the cities streets is inevitable, which means they should be at every corner, around every turn, and even in waiting for Division agent’s in order to stop them while they can. Sadly with any of the games factions this does not remain true, which paints a glaringly large picture for a city in that has been ravaged by such a devastating virus, and one that is sadly falling apart at the seams.

Instead the city streets are rather empty for those wandering outside of the Dark Zone. Sure a few enemies are here and there at “Encounter” spots, but outside of that, the world is dead, void of life, and feeling rather empty outside of the few survivors that are mindless wandering around. Some of them even asking for things as simple as soda, water, and or canned food only to reward players with a reward they may have already obtained a time or three. Unlike games such as Destiny, Borderlands, and or even Firefall; The Division suffers from a problem that leads enemies to be removed as players progress through the story. While a few players have managed to see enemies out in the “wilderness” that hasn’t been the case for two of our reviewers here at B.A.T.G.R. Hopefully this is just a bug and not done intentionally in the scheme of things.

While the city, as stated, is quite beautiful, the city itself feels voids. Many buildings will be passed by and can’t be entered, but to make up for that Massive Entertainment has created new ways to enlarge their world, which includes subway systems, and even sewer systems that are largely connected to the rest of the world. As stated, however, these areas are still void of life for the most part and will leave players disgruntled if they are simply looking for a small encounter post-campaign. Something Destiny did leave intact for players post-game so that they can seamlessly encounter enemies in order to grind out bounties and secondary objectives. This is thing that The Division could take into consideration for fans wanting some replayability outside of story mission’s on challenging difficulty and the Dark Zone.

End Game Content Grinding is Present

Much like any game of the genre, end-game content as mentioned will be a big thing for those looking for replayability. For some it has been the never-ending grind in order to get the best of the best gear available through the Dark Zone before heading into the games hardest mission difficulty for each story mission only known as “Challenging”. In this mode the grind becomes even more real as players will find themselves fighting super difficult enemies, which are all legendary enemies with their yellow health bars and insane amounts of health. Let alone are they the elite of the elite, they are also ones that hit like trucks, and will wither teams of four down to nothing if players are not prepared to take them on. This unfortunate difficulty can almost be said to be as hard as the Nightfall missions on Destiny as endgame players find themselves

While I would say this is unfamiliar territory to some, the game doesn’t lighten down on the idea that was originally created by Diablo II where players would find themselves constantly in the grind to get the best gear possible, and this meant by taking on some of the games hardest bosses around. Even some of the elite enemies would become adequate targets for players to take out. This rings true for The Division as many players are farming for both exotic blueprints for armor and weapons, but also gear from Challenging missions in order to show they have what it takes to be the top dogs within the game.

The Dark Zone is Where the Game Comes to Life

When thinking of a city that has been ravaged by a virus, we constantly think of areas such as quarantine zones and biohazard labs. This rings true for The Division as players will constantly find themselves diving into the games most dangerous place to me: The Dark Zone. The Dark Zone is one place where the baddest of the baddest come out to play, but at a high risk since the virus is present, and this zone comes with the risk of dying. While those who were there when the outbreak have passed, the Dark Zone’s baddies don’t care as this is where they roam the streets, and find themselves being the kings as well as queens of the DZ. These enemies will provide a chance at some of the best game once players hit level 30.

This is also a place where Division Agents will find themselves going as they hunt down the best of the best gear possible when not diving into the missions mentioned earlier. Here players at level 30 will find themselves utilizing their mastered abilities and even grouping up to increase their chances of survival. The difficulty in this game is present around the corner, but what makes this experience all the more unique is that it is an open PvP zone. Here players who suspect you may just have what they want, or just because they can, may rain a few bullets down on your team while using their abilities to their advantage. This means one player may run a medic build while the other three run a combination of things just to up their chances at survival. While the A.I. is lethal, the thing that is more lethal are those around you as they can turn on you at any minute, and steal your loot. Let alone do they steal your loot, they go rogue, which marks them for all agents in the area to take out, increase their gains, and even run off with the loot from those rogue agents.

While the Dark Zone sounds as dangerous as it can be, the Dark Zone comes with its own set of in-game rewards through Dark Zone vendors. This can include exotic weapons or armor, legendary weapons or armor, and even some awesome apparel changes that can be found int he open world. Let alone is the experience worth having, the Dark Zone provides a unique twist to grinding out named bosses, much like in titles such as Destiny, Borderlands, and even Diablo. It’s here where the end-game comes to life as well as the PvP aspect of any game. While one would hope for modes like what Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six or even Ghost Recon have to order, we’re down for what this game has to offer since it’s a unique experience, and one that’ll keep the game around for a while.

Cover to Cover and Closing Thoughts are Here to Stay, so is The Division

While it would be easy to carry on about what makes The Division unique for hours on end, it’s not something I’d like to do. As the game carries very familiar tactics such as cover to cover, pulse to see enemies, and team oriented mechanics, it’s hard to say that The Division isn’t unique since it takes some of the best things about previous titles by Ubisoft and uses them quite well. While the story itself is weak at certain points along with its character development, but overall? The experience itself speaks louder than those few minor flaws that can be improved with upcoming content and a few game updates.

Tom Clancy’s The Division – PC, PlayStation 4 (Reviewed), and Xbox One
Developer: Ubisoft Massive, Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Reflections, Ubisoft Annecy
Publisher: Ubisoft
Cost: 59.99 USD (Base Copy) | 99.99 USD (Gold Edition)
Release Date: Now Available

While The Division is weak at certain points, it’s easy to look past its weak points to find its strong points to keep the experience alive, and because of that it’s pretty easy to say that Tom Clancy’s The Division will be here to stay thanks to the loot system as well as the future content that’s on its way sometime soon. We just hope sooner than later as fans will consume the content that’s there pretty quickly given enough time as this one of the best new franchises to exist in the current state of gaming.

Our review is based upon the edition of the game we purchased ourselves. For information about our ethics policy please click here.

Final Score: 9 out of 10

About the Writer:

E.O.D. Test Site – Smiting the gods with Smite on PlayStation 4

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Smite is a game worth mentioning to many. As one of the highest appraised MOBA’s on the market next to Vainglory, DOTA, and League of Legends; the title has earned a lot of credibility and respect from gamers from around the world since its launch just a few years ago. With fans ranging from PC to Xbox One and now PlayStation 4, we’ve decided to let our E.O.D. members get their hands on the game. What they thought of it? Takes a few notes from both the P.C. and the Xbox One version and compares the three together for a bit of fun.

Smite on PlayStation 4 has been a long awaited dream for PlayStation 4 owners as many of them opted out of Microsoft’s Xbox One. This meant missing out on early 3v3 maps, god skins, and even other items within the game. But this latest version offers a few things that the Xbox One version offers up also. So what are the key differences outside of the games third person action? Lets take a look at the console variants versus PC before we really get into the fun stuff.

First of all, PC by default does see a lot more game modes, meaning players will take on modes such Assault and Siege. Both of which are already experienced by PC players and Xbox One players. Unlike other game modes, Siege offers a unique twist to the game as both teams primarily do not focus on gathering gold or resources, but instead players will focus on minion kills for one point each or players for five poins each, and finally neutral camps for nine points each. First team to spawn the Siege Juggernaut will find it constantly moving forward, and attacking any enemy units that are in its path. Structures taking priority. In this mode there is also a creature titled Wild Juggernaut. If slain this enemy will spawn next to a friendly Siege Juggernaut, separate from the encounter, and will allow them to coexist while taking down enemy objectives. The mode is focused on a 4v4 team build so that the team will be a bit more of a valued statement.

For those who recently played Grab Bag the mode Assault may seem rather familiar.Assault is known as an ARAM, which means All Random All Mid. This mode is a custom mode from other MOBA titles, one that others don’t have, and is unique to itself. The mode finds players selected to a random God they want, however players can use their favor to re-roll their chosen deity or even use premium currency. During this mode players will find themselves fighting for a single lane while being unable to recall back to base or even buy items. That option? To die. However, this does affect your teams overall standing and even affects the teams ability to obtain items and level up. Like Conquest the game offers the ability to destroy the enemy teams two towers, phoenix, and even their titan. However, PlayStation 4 users have not heard of when or if they are getting this mode in the near future.

While those few differences are subtle between the other versions, there are a few things that the PlayStation 4 has going for it such as unique skins for characters, and even a chance to obtain a few of the chests that weren’t available to PlayStation 4 players when the game initially launched during this Closed Beta period. The skins, however are promotional, which does mean they’ll be exclusive and possibly up for grabs for a limited time. This version does also see a bit of need for ranked play and clans as they are still unavailable for play and have not been stated when they will be implemented into the open beta version.

At this time, however, Smite stands as a solid MOBA on the PlayStation, PC, and Xbox families and bring players from around the world to enjoy a contest of the pantheons. we’ll see you around, gamers when our finalized review comes out once Beta ends for PS4.

About the Writer:

Chris Adee is one of B.A.T.G.R.’s newest writers who seems to love three things. Sleep, games, and MOBA’s when he’s not goofing around on Warframe and SMITE. He also likes games. A lot. Oh and anime. Did we mention anime?

QuakeCon 2016 First Round of Reservations Launches Tonight

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Many of you already know what QuakeCon is because we’ve been covering it for two years now thanks to our friends over at Bethesda Zenimax. Today the publisher has announced that the pre-registrations for the ‘BYOC Select-a-Seat with UAC Command Center Seating’package is set to open for attendees today, March 14^th at 7pm CT/8pm ET at: registration.quakecon.org. Meaning tonight for all of us. The packages are listed below and detail what comes with the registrations that will be available.

The ‘BYOC Select-a-Seat with UAC Command Center Seating’ package ($400 | limit of 32 packages available), which includes VIP seating in the Network Operations Center and fast passes for the entire event, also contains:

Select and reserve a VIP seat at the Network Operations Center (NOC) in the BYOC
Express lane fast-pass registration for the BYOC
Express lane fast-pass to every panel, presentation, and public event at QuakeCon
Limited reserved access seating for all panels, presentations, and events
Direct access to plug your PC into the NOC’s core
Official QuakeCon 2016 UAC Lanyard

The game publisher has also stated that they will have additional BYOC packages that will become available over the upcoming weeks via the QuakeCon pre-registration website. For the full descriptions for each of the limited BYOC packages, and the dates they will become available, are below.

Please note: Press pre-registration will open today at 7pm CT/8pm ET. If you’d like to register for media credentials for QuakeCon 2016, please visit: registration.quakecon.org/media.

PREMIUM BYOC PACKAGES | DESCRIPTIONS & AVAILABILITY

Thursday, March 17^th at 7pm CT/8pm ET

Round 2 | BYOC Select-a-Seat with QuakeCon done Quick

Includes Fast Passes for the Duration of the Event

$140 (Limit of 300 packages available)

Select and Reserve a guaranteed seat of your choice in the BYOC area
Express lane fast-pass registration for the BYOC
Express lane fast-pass to every panel, presentation, and public event at QuakeCon
Limited reserved access seating for all panels, presentations, and events
Official QuakeCon 2016 QdQ Lanyard

Wednesday, March 23^rd at 7pm CT/8pm ET

Round 3 | BYOC Select-a-Seat

Includes Guaranteed Reserved Seating

$40 (Limit of 2,100 packages available)

Select and Reserve a guaranteed seat of your choice in the BYOC area
Official QuakeCon 2016 Lanyard

Thursday, March 24^th at 7pm CT/8pm ET

Round 4 | General Attendee Pre-Registration

While general attendance remains free, attendees wishing to participate in the QuakeCon 2016 BYOC must pre-purchase one of the ‘BYOC Select-a-Seat’ packages through our online registration site to guarantee a spot in the BYOC. As ‘BYOC Select-a-Seat’ packages are limited and all seats will be accounted for prior to the show, we won’t have seats available on-site or on a first-come-first serve basis. Once the packages sell out, we’ll be giving people the opportunity to win a limited number of BYOC seats via social media giveaways, contests, and via our event partners leading up to the show. Be sure to keep an eye on our QuakeCon Twitter account and QuakeCon Facebook page for all the details on how to win!

About QuakeCon

QuakeCon, the ultimate video game festival, will take place on-site at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX on Thursday, August 4^th – Sunday, August 7^th. Doors to QuakeCon will open on Thursday, August 4^th at 10:00am CT and will remain open through 12:00pm CT August 7^th. For more information visit: www.quakecon.org.

About the Writer:

Epic Games Prepares to Launch Paragon Early Access Monday

March 12, 2016March 12, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

MOBA’s as we all know have risen to popularity. A few years ago it was first person shooters galore, a few years before that it was RPG’s, and even a few years before that? It was a melting pot for indie games. Well that indie melting pot hasn’t ended, but what has ended is the fact that MOBA’s are no longer a PC exclusive territory, and console gamers as well as tablet gamers are getting to see their fare share of the genre itself.

With Paragon having been announced at the PlayStation Experience of 2015, the game has grabbed a lot of attention for its unique explosive action that has that special Epic Games touch. With MOBA’s being what they are, players can compete and win without spending money or you can throw out a little bit of cash and get the games Founder’s Pack(s) to start showing your support. As with any title, all heroes are free, and all of their cards can only be earned by playing the game. Yup, you read it first, you unlock characters by playing.

So what does this mean? PC and PlayStation 4 owners can buy the Founder’s Packs. These unique packs will be available starting March 14th with multiple tiers available starting at 19.99 USD all the way up to 99.99 USD. Each one comes with its own content that’ll be given to users. So lets take a look at the paid option tiers:

Founder’s Packs (19.99 USD): Includes access to closed beta, skins, boosts, and other cosmetic options for characters.

Challenger Packs (59.99 USD) | Master Packs (99.99 USD): will include a huge number of skins, unlockable items, boosts, a unique skin, and a Founder’s Pack to give to a friend. Right now the rest of the info regarding this is still in the air for those looking to play, but Epic Games has been great about keeping players informed.

If you’d like to support Paragon, buy a Founder’s Pack on March 14 and jump in early. Or, you can sign up for the Beta at Paragon.com and join us for free in the Summer of 2016.

About the Writer:

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered to Launch on PlayStation 4 This Spring

March 12, 2016March 14, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

After having bought the game on Steam through a recent 75% off promotion coupon, it wasn’t surprising to see that something was up, and for Sega, that stood true. This comes with the news that Valkyria Chronicles has been remastered and will soon find itself launching in both the Americas and Erope on May 17th for PlayStation 4. This version will allow players to once more relive the lives of Squad 7’s valiant fight against the Empire. This time in full 1080p HD at 60FPS. That means beautiful, smooth, and upgraded graphic fidelity. This also means the game will come with all original DLC, dual voice dubs, and even trophy support.

Along with this announcement, Sega has also announced the game will come with limited launch copies in the Americas for those wanting a collectible metal Squad 7 Armored Case. So what is this going to cost you? 29.99 USD or 49.99 CA.

About the Writer:

Warframe Update 18.5 – Sands of Inaros Now Available on PC

March 11, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

If you’ve been enjoying the ongoing developments in Warframe as much as we have, you’re in store for some fun for our PC brethren who’re just slightly ahead of consoles as far as updates go. While we know Update 18.5 has been out for a few days, we know not all of you have gotten your hands on it, so lets take a look at the patch notes.

The patch includes the following:

New Warframe: Inaros

Desiccation – Blast enemies with a wave of cursed sand that blinds them and steals their health.

Devour- Hold power to trap target in quicksand and draw them in for devouring; this steals health and ultimately creates a friendly Sand Shadow.

Sandstorm – Become a whirling spiral of sand that sends enemies flying and devours those trapped in quicksand.

Scarab Swarm – Charge to transform health into hardened scarab armor. Discharge to blast enemies with a scarab swarm; survivors have their health drained and bestowed on allies.

Sands of Inaros Quest Line:

Baro Ki’Teer is searching for riches under the sands of Phobos, but he needs Tenno help in order to find his fortune.

New Enemies

Kavat – A feral Kavat. Feral Kavats can be found in all Derelict Missions except Defense.

Hyekka – Trained to hunt down Infestation.

Hyekka Master – Summons a Hyekka to fight for it. Hyekka Masters will replace Drahk Masters in the following Missions: Phobos (Grineer Settlement tileset) and Moon Defense. They will also appear in any Grineer Mission that features Infested, and may also appear in other Missions that spawn Grineer enemies.

New Weapons

Lesion – An instrument of unrelenting harm in close combat.

Mutalist Cernos – Overcome with Infestation, this bow’s arrows now spread poisonous contagion to any surface they hit.

Dual Toxocyst – Brain-strikes excite this bioweapon, causing it to rapidly release toxic munitions

New Cosmetics

New Landing Craft – XIPHOS – Featuring Sentry Gun air-support, this stylish Landing Craft is an asset in any battle.

Abrasys Syandana – Evokes stone scarred but not destroyed by the sea’s tireless onslaught.

Celestia Syandana – Displays Daily Conclave Challenge progress, with a beam of light for each completed challenge.

New General Features:

The Randomizer is here! Players can now customize their loadout and appearance using the ‘Randomize’ button in the Arsenal!

New Arsenal hierarchy/organization

New ‘Dojo’ Warframe colour picker.

Reactor Sabotage 2.0

Grineer and Corpus Ship Reactor Sabotage missions have been given a total overhaul, complete with diverse mission objectives and a new set of Sabotage-unique tiles. Reactor Sabotage 2.0 includes:

Interactive Mission objectives that will change depending on the squad playstyle. These objectives will create unique environmental hazards and varying extraction goals depending on the Squads choice.

4 new Grineer tiles.

4 new Corpus tiles.

Tileset Expansion – Orokin Moon

The Orokin Moon tileset has been expanded to include new game modes. These additions include:

20 new environmental tiles.

Defense, Capture, and Warframe’s most difficult Spy Missions yet!

Overall improvements to older tileset rooms, including graphical and lighting adjustments.

Chat Changes

Warframe’s chat UI has been given a complete overhaul, including new features and more intuitive settings for private conversations and player searching. We will continue to expand upon the chat UI in the coming updates. The following changes have been made to the chat UI:

Chat has received a visual reskin.

Tabs are now icons for default channels and text for private messages, separating chat channels from conversations you’re having with other players.

An Emojis tab has been added to the chat UI! Share your feelings without words using Emoji’s you know and love, in addition to Warframe exclusive Emojis. Enjoy! 😀

Emoji’s can also be auto-completed with the : command.

Emoji color settings have been added to the Chat Options menu.

Auto-complete player name functionality has been added. This tab will open when typing @, and will only show players recently spoken to.

Chat channel notifications will now appear in the chat tab when a player’s name has been mentioned in a channel. This effect will be brief for channels you are currently speaking in, but more prominent for channels you are not currently focused on.

Pressing up and down while in a chat channel will display previous messages you’ve sent.

Maximum character count in the Trade channel is 180.

A whisper button has been added to the player Profile screen.

Lighting Improvements

Warframe’s lighting system has received a complete overhaul, putting an extra layer of detail on every single graphical element of the game. Players should notice a substantial increase in detail across all of Warframe’s game modes, weapons, characters and tilesets.

Interception AI Improvements

Enemies in Interception Missions have been overhauled to help improve the flow of combat over the course of the Mission. These improvements include:

Superior objective finding and hacking agent selection.

Better player tracking and more intuitive movement to Squad location.

Enemies unable to hack (such as MOAs) will no longer move to engage hacking consoles.

You can play for free through the Warframe Website for PC or download for free through the Xbox Live Marketplace or PlayStation Store.

Our Thoughts:

Warframe is one of those games that Digital Extemes has shown a lot of love for, fans have shown a lot of love for, and even new comers have begun showing a lot of love for. Luckily the game as it grows, has gotten bigger, more beautiful and even more-refined as it goes. To be honest? This is probably the best free-to-play title I’ve played in a long time. With the game now having a giant central hub, it truly feels like a non-isolated game, but with these subtle changes? We’re going to see the game grow even more and get even more stories behind each frame. Now if only we could see a Chang’e or even a Kali frame.

About the Writer:

Where’s Our Tom Clancy’s The Division Review?

March 8, 2016 / Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Many of you know we’ve been excited, and not just excited, but highly anticipating Tom Clancy’s The Division. Like many great online only games, there’s always a limitation to when a games review can be readily made available for readers. This time around Tom Clancy’s The Division will be one that we will be starting our review work for today. Due to the game not having closed review servers as we would’ve hoped, we know there’s a lot of time we have to make up for since the game has been one of the most anticipated by fans this year.

Much like our progress we did for Destiny when we covered it, The Division will get a very familiar treatment where we will progress through it, and putting in a review as we go since the review will indefinitely be in progress since The Division is an online game and could see small changes over its lifetime. We want to thank you for your patience and understanding and we will have that review up for you soon.

About the Writer:

Blast Away The Game Review

A little bit of news, a little bit of reviews, and bit of games from around the world for you.

Author: Dustin Murphy

Review: The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition – Some Things Aren’t Worth Reviving

Final Score: 6 out of 10

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Review: Bombshell – Little Chick, Big Guns, and Lots of Explosives Part 2

Final Score: 7 out of 10

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Cheap @$$ Gamer: Gaming isn’t just for PC or Consoles. Pick Up That Tablet!

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Review: Tom Clancy’s The Division – Dividing Players from Each Other

Final Score: 9 out of 10

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E.O.D. Test Site – Smiting the gods with Smite on PlayStation 4

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QuakeCon 2016 First Round of Reservations Launches Tonight

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Epic Games Prepares to Launch Paragon Early Access Monday

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Valkyria Chronicles Remastered to Launch on PlayStation 4 This Spring

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Warframe Update 18.5 – Sands of Inaros Now Available on PC

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Where’s Our Tom Clancy’s The Division Review?

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Final Score: 6 out of 10

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Final Score: 7 out of 10

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Final Score: 9 out of 10

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