Alright, so if you read my little quick look blurb on Xcom2 you already know it's a pretty tough game that puts itself a step above 2013's already challenging XCom: Enemy Unknown / Enemy Within. I'm here to put my thoughts down and I hope you'll stay with me for the read. Read more
With the end of #4if approaching quickly I was curious about what to do next. So I was looking at some article suggestions on our boards and one of those was the question of: Are there any games you're looking forward to in the near future? And I thought to myself, "Self, there are games you're looking forward to, you should write about that." Read more
Hearthstone's solo adventures are always a pleasant change of pace. Instead of beating up on other people, we're beating up on imaginary bosses. These bosses are generally thematically linked through some crumbs of story that get doled out as each wing of the adventure unlocks.
In the case of League of Explorers, the story's wrapped around a kind of Indiana Jones-like concept, where you help both prominent Warcraft lore figures and newcomers alike to banish a thief named Rafaam from the current dig you're on.
It's simple and fun - for the most part. It also introduces new adventure mechanics, new cards with thematic ideas and my very favourite Murloc - something I thought I'd never say - in the form of Sir Finley Mrrgglton.
So, as Peter Molyneux might ask...what's inside the box? Read more
4iF was one of my favorite Joystiq features. I recall last year I tried to pay homage to it by finishing 4 games per month until I reached May in which I went for a Cinco de Mayo and finished 5 of them. Good times. This year, I'll tackle the following:
Disgaea 5
I've been playing Disgaea 5 since early December. It's one of my favorite series and I've already clocked over 70 hours into this game. I haven't finished the main story yet so I'll focus on that part now. It's been very interesting so far and I hope the last 5 episodes get even better.
Strider
The classic Capcom franchise came to the current gen with a very strong Metroidvania game. I'm currently exploring the map so I can get all the power ups before I go the the final stage. The game appropriately warns you that if you go to the last level you won't be able to go back to the main map, so once I'm done exploring I'll try to finish it.
Limbo
Oh, Limbo how I have forsaken you. I started playing this bad boy on PC a few years ago, but I never finished it because I really didn't feel like it. I felt platformers belonged to consoles and quit after passing that big and shining HOTEL sign. Now that I got it for free for the PS4 I told myself I'd try to play through it at least once... And the time is now.
Gone Home
I needed an extra game to complete this list so I tried to add a game that I've heard is only 3 hours long. I'm not really sure what to expect form this one, but I've been pleasantly surprised by critically acclaimed indie games before. For example, I loved Papers, Please. Who would have thought checking out passports would be fun?
Hard West is a turn based squad tactical strategy game that's been compared to titles like X-COM Enemy Uknown and Jagged Alliance. Stay with me for my thoughts, and as always click an image to see it full size.
Upon firing this game up for the first time and seeing the title screen and menus I was immediately excited to play. This is a game I was looking forward to for a couple of months and I can say that I wasn't disappointed. As the name would imply this is a title that takes place in the wild west, but the twist is the added paranormal element. I'm not talking X-Files here, it's nothing over done. No ghosts and skeletons or aliens, any of that kind of stuff. Instead we're looking curses, cults, and a demon prince. It all fits together very well. By that I mean that even with the paranormal overtones this game still feels like a western... a very dark one. Hell, even the demons are gun slinging cowboys.
I love the music. There are 14 tracks and they're really good at setting the mood and getting stuck in your head. Thankfully they all have a western feel, increasing Hard West's honest feeling about what it is.
So the story of Hard West is pretty linear, but at the same time it's not. Let me explain. When you start a new game you will always play the scenarios in order. After you complete the first scenario you'll unlock a second story with different characters and their respective scenarios. Both of these have to be played linearly but you can skip back and forth between them after each one is completed, allowing a sort of lane change to each story. I can't of course go into explaining any aspect without spoilers...so I won't.
Each scenario is a bit different as your characters will evolve and change, as with the mode of progression for completion. See, between the fights there's a secondary mode. In X-COM it was the ant farm, where you built modules for research. In Hard West it's the overworld map mode where you'll be required to complete objectives and explore locations. The player is represented here by a bleached bull's skull. This is also where you'll find stores to purchase items to benefit your characters in the form of weapons, to healing herbs and special relics to improve stats. Often times you'll run into an area where you'll have to make a choice that has a random effect on your main character. Could be great, could be awful, could be nothing, but each decision is final as there are absolutely zero manual saves or loads.
Each scenario has different objectives to complete while in the secondary mode. One time you may be looking for mining licenses so you can find gold to fund your operations. While another time you may be looking for patents and blueprints so you can research upgrades for weapons and items. Each time a major objective is completed you'll be prompted to go to a location and prepare for a fight.
Before we talk about battles, we've got to look at character movement and discuss action points. This is the same standard movement system as other titles like this one. You'll select a character and see your two stage highlighted area. Movement anywhere within the first stage will cost one action point, and anywhere in the second stage will cost a second action point. All characters have two action points during combat to spend per turn and they're represented by the stars next to the health gauge displayed above their head. We'll talk about different ways they're spent further in.
Now we can discuss the extensive combat system in Hard West, in fact that's where most of our focus from here out will be. First and foremost, it can be pretty challenging, you'll need to use the environment to your advantage to make it through combat missions. Cover is available to hide behind and is not destructible. Full and half cover will provide different levels of protection for all characters to the tune of significant damage reduction. So maybe your gun does five damage, well against full cover it will most likely only hit for one damage. If a character is flanked the cover bonus is negated by the flanker allowing them to hit for full damage. Another interesting mechanic is the use of interactive items available in the field. Let's say there's a big crate near a posse member and by itself it provides half cover, but open its flimsy half inch pinewood lid and now you've got full protection. Of course all types are helpful in terms of line of sight, but that won't always save you. 
Tents for instance, will block line of sight but are not at all good at stopping bullets. If it's day time you may see a shadow that gives away an enemy position. This will allow a character to be targeted and shot at through the tent even without a direct line of sight, but will invoke an aim penalty that will reduce your chance to hit. Yes, even the time of day itself has an effect on combat and abilities; this -is- predetermined however: there is no day/night cycle. The image below explains those effects.
Then there are ricochets. This is one of the coolest ways to get around cover. All characters share sight. So let's say you've got a set up where one of your posse is posted behind a rail at a building to the south. Directly north is another building with an enemy posted behind it, out of that member's line of sight. Another of your posse runs to the north building and posts up on a corner with the ability to see that enemy. This enemy's location is now shared with your posse member to the south, but there's still no direct line of sight to set up a shot. Now let's say this north building happens to be a blacksmith and there's an anvil outside. Your southern member no longer needs line of sight, just the ability to ricochet a shot off the anvil around the building to bury a piece of hot lead in his left buttock. Even cooler is that ricochets can bounce off multiple applicable surfaces allowing for some amazing trick shots. In the image below we can see the highlighted character preparing to ricochet from the bell to the cauldron to NPC behind the tree.
Hard West uses a character's hit percentages modified by their aim to determine whether a shot will connect or not: the higher a characters aim the better the hit chance. The tipper here is that all characters have an extra factor in the form of "luck". This is kind of like a secondary health bar and will directly offset the hit modifier by a percentage equal to the hit chance. Abilities also cost luck to use and every character starts with 100 luck by default. So, say an enemy is preparing a shot against one of your posse. Let's give that enemy an arbitrary hit chance of 75%, and say your posse member has 60 luck left in his or her bar. That means this enemy now has only a 15% chance to hit. Now let's say that shot misses your character, his or her luck will now drop by the initial chance to hit but not below zero. So your posse member spent 75 bringing the bar to zero. Their luck has just run out, negating any effect on the next shot made by a different enemy that just happens to hit this time. Ok, your posse member just took a bullet. Not good. But now that character regains a portion of luck reducing the chance of taking another shot right away, and helping to maintain the balance of this very deep combat system. In this image below you can see that the NPC marked with an arrow has just missed the highlighted character by the window, causing him to require a change of pants and decreasing his luck by 25.
Of course during combat your posse members may be injured. This only happens if you've turned on combat injuries at the start of the scenario, but it's a double edged sword. Being badly hurt -will- hobble your character for a while. But if they survive... those wounds will have a largely positively effect. Below, in this image you can see a posse member that was severely wounded but managed to power through, and is all the better for it. 
Also viewed in that same image is the character's poker hand. Ability cards will obviously help your posse members in various and nefarious ways and are unlocked by completing missions. Each card has a face value, and the better your cards the better the benefit. This character has only managed to acquire a simple pair. Presumably because his poker face is just terrible, as is the rest of his face. But that pair has given him a pretty good bonus to movement. Each card, as mentioned above, will have effects on the posse member holding that card. Below is yet another image helping explain this. What we see here (in case you're sick of clicking pictures) is the Queen of Diamonds that adds not only to the total hand bonus, but also provides the passive ability "Shadow Cloak" allowing invisibility when not in the sun. The card itself also applies a +2 to character movement all the time.
Weapons are surprisingly varied in Hard West and each has it's strengths and weaknesses. At the bottom of the UI is the range indicator 
showing the effectiveness of your currently equipped weapon versus the range of your target. Handguns and shotguns have a short to medium range, rifles a medium to long range, and scoped rifles only a long range. Some weapons use the extreme versions of this modifier. Sawed off shot guns are very close up weapons, and the Elephant Rifle is only effective at a very long distance. You'll incur a significant aim and chance to hit penalty by challenging ranges, so pay attention to that and remember weapon swapping is a free action.
Most characters will start with a standard six shooter. You'll also be able to purchase or find secondary weapons at traders and after completing missions respectively. Soon, gun variations will become apparent. For instance a Derringer only does three damage, but it will allow two shots per turn as long as you have the action points, it takes one per shot. So it has the potential of doing up to six damage per turn. The downside of a Derringer is of course its very short effective range and the fact that it only has two ammunition. Scoped rifles have only one ammunition and are only effective at long range, but happen to be very powerful. With both action points and some luck left a character can use its "Scoped Shot" ability. This will allow a 100% chance to hit whoever is targeted, but has a three turn cool down. So no moving or reloading before firing.
Which brings me from a graceful and not at all obvious segway to the subject of reloading. Each time you fire a weapon you'll deplete its ammo...derp. This means after a bit of firing you'll need to replenish ammunition, costing one action point. On top of that your character may not be able to totally refill their ammo, often only two or three rounds at once. Get a weapon's ammo too low and it may disallow some abilities. Example: lots of pistols allow an ability called Fanning. This is where the character will hip fire their pistol as seen in pretty much any spaghetti western, firing three shots in quick succession. So the ability requires at least three ammo in the weapon or it won't work. Also worth noting here is that it only takes one action point to fire any weapon, but doing so will -always- end a character's turn.
Graphics in Hard West, though not the best ever seen in a title like this, are pretty nice to look at. Some of the design might seem a little generic at first, but it's really got its own flavor the more you see it. Lighting is nice, animations are simple but smooth and the ability to rotate the map 360 degrees will give you a full view of the field.
The UI at first feels a little confusing, but once you play a mission or two you'll learn it. There are still problems though, like not being able to hover over a skill during combat to see a description. You'll have to open your character screen to see them. There's also no obvious way to cancel a selection once made and can cause some frustrating mistakes. This is done by right clicking off the current panel or hitting escape. That range modifier bar I mentioned further up can also be tricky to follow since it's linked to the mouse pointer. Meaning wherever you drag the mouse that bar will show the range modification. Just some small stuff really, it's very functional for the most part and a lot simpler than it seems at first.
If I had to make complaints it's going to be these items: Sounds and the overall optimisation of the game. Also characters aren't -that- memorable. And the lack of varying 3D weapon models.
First off: sounds seem a little weak. Not bad at all mind you, just not exceptionally powerful. Is this terrible? No it isn't, the game's still awesome.
Second, Hard West is not consistent at all in its frame rate. Though this isn't horrible either, as there isn't a ton of motion that requires a perfect 60 fps. Still it would be nice to see that addressed since it does seem that this title is a bit CPU heavy and that's noticeable on the temperature gauge. During a session I played one morning my home temperature was 58°F, or around 14°C. I noticed my CPU clocking in at 115°F, or 46°C. Seems pretty warm in general, I don't like seeing much above 42°C myself; and it's definitely high for a room temp that low. Especially since I'm using one of these coolers. Luckily the devs have been putting out patches regularly as needed, so it may be fixed sooner than later.
Third, characters are themselves pretty memorable in certain scenarios, but in others you'll find yourself caring less. I don't think it's lack of development that causes that, the overlying story is very interesting. Rather it seems to be the fact that there are several main characters, each with their own stories and it just feels a little tough to follow at times. Admittedly though this issue is probably lessened greatly by not jumping back and forth during scenario selection.
Fourth, the last complaint I have is very trivial and also understandable being as Hard West's budget was pretty limited. But I would have liked to see individual gun models represented on screen during combat instead of just one standard model for each weapon type. There are some really cool designs with the special and unique guns and it would add a lot to the atmosphere being able to see them during play outside of the character screen.
Again, this is serious nit-picking. I get that it would have been a bunch more work and cost a lot more money. 
Fear not, dear readers. The conclusion is at hand! Hard West: A tactical squad game with a fairly compelling story and excellent mechanics. Do I recommend it? Yes I do, even though at the time of writing this review I'm not done with my play through. I still have three scenarios left. However I feel confident enough to write about it because it was easy to understand what I was in for from the start. This game didn't get much press, I imagine for budget reasons, and that's too bad really because it's been largely overlooked. I feel that anyone who likes these kinds of titles owes it to themselves to pick it up. Hard West is $20 on Steam and with 40 missions and 8 different scenarios it's worth the cost.
System requirements for Hard West are as follows:
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows Vista/7/8/10
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 2.6 GHz / Intel Core 2 Quad 2.6 GHz
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon HD 4670 (512 MB) / GeForce GT 430 (1024 MB)
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 6 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows Vista/7/8/10
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 3.1 GHz / Intel Core i5 3 GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: Radeon R7 260X (2 GB) / GeForce GTX 550 Ti (1 GB)
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 6 GB available space
...And it was great! Here's my review of this very underrated title.
As always, click an image to full size it.
Ok, so back in November of 2015 Nordic Games released the Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition. There was a customer loyalty package that was a bit controversial. It involved different tiers of ownership allowing different levels of discounts for the game including a free version for certain folks. Anyway, long story short, turns out I still had to pay for it, and I strongly considered not buying it at all. Albeit this fee for me was minimal at a mere $6.00, why would I spend money on a game that I already had?
Well, I'll tell you what made me pull the trigger and buy it. THQ (the original owners of Darksiders IP) filed for Bankruptcy back in 2012 so that meant no more Darksiders for us fans. This was a sad day. So, Nordic Games picked up ownership along with some of the original folks from Vigil Games, now called Gunfire Games, and remastered Darksiders 2. They released that as the Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition. This is the game itself along with all the DLC in one package remastered for 1080p and 60fps. All this is great, but the kicker for me was that this release was also an experiment in people's interest in the Darksiders series in general because Nordic wants to plan Darksiders 3.
Awesome, I want Darksiders 3. I bought the game for the modest $6.00 and I hope, hope, hope, that a lot of other folks did too so that we get a 3rd title. And to anyone out there with the same interest or even a passing interest in the series, I want to suggest the purchase. It's $30 on Steam, you'll get the game, some special weapons and armors that are genuinely useful for your play through. You'll also get three bonus campaigns that yield even more rewards and around six to eight hours of extra content. It's worth the buy even if you don't care about the continuation of the series.
Ok boring blah blah information over. Let's talk about the game now.
So we ended the first Darksiders with War in serious trouble from the bosses, what with allegedly beginning an unsanctioned apocalypse and all. You know... that old chestnut. Well, in Darksiders 2 you'll play as the Rider of Death. Now, Death believes his Brother War, is innocent and it's all a setup. So he sets out to prove the facts and ends up battling for the very existence of many worlds. His journey takes him through the Forgelands of the Makers, through barren plains of the Realm of the Dead, to the pious towers of the Angels, the black evil world of Demonkind, and even Earth itself.
Death finds allies and enemies everywhere he goes but his mindset is only that he must help his brother War, any way that he can. Characters are thought out and each one has meaning and an impact on the story. Death himself, voiced by Michael Wincott, is an extremely memorable character. On the one hand he is a genuinely scary guy, he has little patience, he's known everywhere as being capable of terrifying power even though the story itself exclaims he's never at full strength throughout the game, and he rides a very scary horse named Despair. On the other hand, Death is an honorable individual, one could argue the he's even caring as he desperately wants to save his brother's very soul. He's reasonable and has no interest in needlessly killing. Death also carries a lot of emotional conflict but I don't want to spoil things for those who haven't played yet.
Ok, so if Zelda and Kratos met at a cocktail party and they snuck up stairs to find an unlocked room and then did it on every surface resulting in a nine month gestation period that produced a child with properties of both parents, that's Darksiders 2. Death is a badass, powerful and respected, even feared everywhere he goes. But getting wherever he goes requires platforming, collecting items, keys, treasures, and of course slaying countless monsters, demons, and bosses while traversing many worlds. If you haven't guessed yet, this is a 3rd person ARPG. Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition, is full of action and exploration with a fair amount of puzzle solving as well.
Combat is a very functional and fun combination of skill and button mashing. Death has a moves list and can even talk to a trainer to gain more advanced move based attacks. There are two skill trees in the leveling system that give Death abilities as he levels up. He's got the Harbinger tree, which focuses on raw strength, critical strikes and heavy melee damage to defeat his Foes. On the other side Death has the Necromancer tree which focuses more on arcane damage, self shielding and summoning allies for help defeating his enemies. Weapons and armor are varied and will reflect those skills. Death's main weapons are of course his double scythes, fast and versatile in battle. He'll also find secondary weapons in the form of slower two handed axes, hammers, glaives, and various fist weapons that allow for fast attacks and damage reduction. On top of that there are tons of models for all of these, so it never feels boring. Death also acquires his brother Strife's pistol, Redemption allowing for quick ranged attacks. All of these weapons and abilities can be used in combination during combat making fights a shit load of fun. 
Worth noting as well for those of us who are just sick of it, is that there are quite happily no quick time events in Darksiders 2. The closest we get to that is when Death weakens a foe enough to execute them. This will mark the enemy and when the player hits the "interact" button Death will instantly kill that enemy in a dramatic fashion. Or the occasional button mash to break free of being frozen in place, but thankfully this title lets us players fight our own battles.
During the game's story Death also procures special abilities that help him traverse the world and can even help in combat. These abilities will also unlock access to items and chests and hidden areas in places he's already been. Exploration is very helpful, look in every corner, nook and cranny. For a lot of people this game mechanic is tedious, but I'll say now that backtracking is minimal and totally optional. I for one love this mechanic when it's handled properly and Darksiders 2 certainly did that, the rewards can be immensely helpful.
Graphics in the Dethinitive Edition, are remastered and they look great. This game is a few years old now, and that's evident just because of the limitations of the game's engine. But man it's held up well. Textures and lighting are great, especially for a game of it's age with no tessellation and little to no displacement mapping. Check out the great bump mapped surfaces here in this image below. Get up close to that wall and turn the camera though and you'll see it's just a plain flat surface. 
The only complaint I have speaking to graphics is that there are times when this game doesn't really gel with the newer shaders supported by todays GPU's, resulting in some very occasional pixelation. Really though, this is nit picking.
Level design is fluid and interesting, and each area is filled with super cool visuals. The art direction is stylized and really one of my favorite types of presentation. The folks in charge of creature design deserve medals. Some of the lesser monsters seem kind of generic but I'm talking about things like skeletons here, and really how many differences can one put in to a skeleton. My favorite creatures are the enormous leviathans that are forced into servitude by the Lord of Bones and made to pull his ghost ship through the skies of the Realm of the Dead. Death's horse Despair, looks appropriately scary. A sort of emaciated, undead animal surrounded by a swirling cloud of captured souls. Character design in general is really cool, everyone from the Makers to the Demon Lords are uniquely built.
Speaking of characters, let's talk about them a bit, hopefully without spoiling anything for anyone who has yet to play this great title. I'll start with the Makers. These ancient peoples live in the Forge Lands and are responsible for the creation of many worlds. They're a spiritual but pragmatic bunch, and are basically big mountain dwarves.
Next a brief talk of the Undead Lords in the Realm of the Dead. Well, very brief really. I can't say much about them without loosing spoilers on the unsuspecting. Other than to say that they are a spectral bunch who Death struggles to get along with.
The Angels of Lost Light, are not the typical bright and holy beings people believe them to be. Instead they're more like zealotous soldiers for their great Archon. They are also the sole occupants of the now post apocalyptic Earth that War, left behind. Tenuous allies, but allies none-the-less.
The Black Stone is home to the Demon Lords. These folks are few and about as trustworthy as one could expect. Unfortunately this is an area that Death spends very little time in. This kind of sucks because there's a really great game mechanic here that isn't used anywhere else.
Music is also very nice in Darksiders 2, in the fact that most of it is just there for ambience, playing subtly in the background providing mood for each area. During combat it's a bit more in the foreground, which makes sense, since the mood focuses on what's happening right now in fight situations. And in fact there's a soundtrack for sale separately for $5.00.
Dialogue options are usually pretty clear and voice acting is very good. Each character has something unique to contribute to Death's story, so talk to everyone. Quest lines are easy to follow and marked clearly on both the world and local maps. Fast travel is available from the overworld map itself but the way it's handled takes some getting used to. Instead of clicking on where you want to go, you'll have to drag the entire map to align the location with a sort of box type crosshair. Once that's done you'll have the opportunity to select it for travel. This of course doesn't work in combat but it can be pretty convenient because if you're in a dungeon and find yourself full of inventory items, or perhaps out of health potions you can fast travel from right where you are to a safe area. This will leave a waypoint where you were in the dungeon to travel back to once you've restocked supplies and sold your overburden lessening down time greatly.
Like every game, this one has it's issues. The platforming for instance is pretty polished, but it's not perfect. There are times when climbing a surface that controls may be less than responsive while trying to leap to another, or just let go. There's nothing game breaking about this, it's just a slight frustration. Even if Death falls off a ledge to his...uhh...death, it's no big deal. He just respawns nearest to where he leapt off as he can be, with no penalties other than having to get back to where he needs to go. He is Death afterall, pretty hard to kill a guy who is the personification of the action. This game is also very good with its autosaves. Which is nice because I experienced a few game crashes here and there for which I could never find a pattern. It was rare but it happened, and seemingly at random.
UPDATE: I may have found a pattern to the seemingly random crashes in-game. They seem to happen only during combat and so far the pattern seems to be during a particularly damaging "Harvest" attack that hits a large group of enemies. I've been able to re-create the situation a couple of times now. Let me know in comments if anyone else has found this to be true as well. -Thanks.
And of course there must be the obligatory area that everyone hates to have to do. That particular place in Darksiders 2 is called the Soul Arbiter's Maze, and luckily for all of us it's totally optional. I highly recommend completing this section of the game anyway because the rewards are worth it. There are map pages throughout the dead realm that tell you exactly how to get through, it's just that the maze itself is tedious. So here's the rundown. You'll enter the maze and be warned that once you start you can't leave unless you complete it or die trying. That statement refers to each stage of the maze, not the entire maze itself. You'll spawn into a circular arena with cardinal directions posted around you. The objective is to fight all the enemies that challenge you in the room to unlock the exit portals and then travel in the direction you need to go. Each room is the same as the last for each section and you'll gain zero experience for combat in any of them except the boss room. This is done to prevent level farming but it still blows. Each stage has an optional secret that you can reach by going in the proper direction before you progress downward and the rewards can be very helpful. There is no reverse travel. So I'll lay out a stage arbitrarily to provide an example. Enter room: fight monsters, travel North, repeat the previously stated, travel West, repeat, travel South, Open secret chest and collect reward. Enter room, fight monsters, travel West, repeat, travel North, repeat, travel North, repeat, travel West, progress to next stage. If Death is defeated or makes a wrong turn he must start the entire stage over. There are ten stages of this and then a boss. It's slow, boring, tedious work but there is a reason to do it.
This brings me to boss battles, which are really well thought out, great fights that include mechanics and require strategies to complete successfully. This can be anything from learning when to dodge an attack, or run in a circle and avoid projectiles, to using special acquired abilities at the proper moment. Every boss encounter is satisfying to play out. Perhaps one of the first actual bosses you'll see comes from a side quest and is an elemental construct called Gorewood. It's a hulking swamp monster that hits like a truck and also fires a sort of homing projectile that will engulf Death and root him in place while doing damage over time and the player must mash a button to break free. So learning the battle is pretty fun. The fight takes place in a semi-watery open area. You'll learn the telegraphs and when to dodge Gorewood's physical attacks and fight back when you can, and you'll also learn that the projectile is avoidable. If Death can't avoid the projectile it's best to make sure he's on a dry spot in the area when it hits him since the DoT won't hurt Death if he's on dry land. He'll still be stuck in place, but won't take a potentially fight ending amount of damage. Every boss is unique and everyone has their favorites, one of my personal favorites is The Wailing Host boss, but I won't go into the fight.
One of the great things about Darksiders 2 is that there's a new game plus mode. I've always had love for that option. Also beating the campaign unlocks new difficulty modes that differ from the difficulty slide bar in the options menu. New game plus is necessary to complete an area called The Crucible, another optional arena with waves of monsters, though not as tedious as the Soul Aribiter's Maze. This one has 100 levels and a boss, but it contains legendary items and there's no maze aspect. I started new game plus a day or so ago and I'm still loving the time spent playing.
Ok, ok, that's about enough from me on this title so I'll go ahead and conclude this. Would I recommend Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition? Yes, I think it's worth the current asking price of $30.00 and if you don't agree then I imagine it'll be on sale here and there so keep an eye out. It's definitely worth playing through at least once, and so by the way is the first Darksiders game. War is whole different animal than Death and his story and struggle is just as interesting to go through. I really hope Nordic will bring a 3rd installment to the table and do so without changing too much of what makes this series great. Rumor has been going around and I've even seen articles that claim to confirm it, but provide no real confirmation. Guys, if you like great story telling, gear hunting, and exploration of well designed visually impressive areas, then you'll love this game.
System Requirements for Darksiders 2 Dethinitive Edition are as follows:
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows XP, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 (64bit)
Processor: 2.0Ghz Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor or AMD equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA 9800 GT 512 MB Video Card or AMD equivalent
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 13 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible Sound card
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 (64bit)
Processor: Any Quad-core AMD or Intel Processor
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 512MB Video Card or AMD equivalent
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 13 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible Sound card
Well as with everything fun and exciting, there must be an end. Just Cause 3 has been recently finished and it held its share of surprises. This was a fun one guys, read on for my thoughts on this crazy destruction sandbox game.
A quick run down for those who don't already know: Just Cause 3, is an open world action adventure game where you play as Dictator Removal Specialist, Rico Rodriguez. Your goal? To liberate the island Nation of Medici from an oppressive ruler by destroying all the government infrastructure you can see by any means you have at your disposal.
So that's the plot in a nutshell. Though even with the very close similarities between all the games in this series, Just Cause 3 actually has a little deeper story. You'll just have to work a bit to see it told, as the games story missions only cover the necessary elements to get you through to the end. The rest of the finer details are found through collecting scraps of an audio diary told from the perspective of the dictator himself, Sebastiano Di Ravello. We even get to learn some of Rico's own history in this game. Now, this is certainly not story telling on the level of let's say The Witcher series, but for an action arcade, "being a badass" game Just Cause 3 is actually pretty interesting.
Even some of the characters in this title are a little more fleshed out and memorable. We meet Rico's childhood friend Mario Frigo, early on and he's a kind of sleezy, weasel of a guy but he's actually pretty likeable as well. He wants to be at the forefront of the action right along with Rico, but he possesses none of the skills so he tends to be the guy Rico looks after more than the guy he fights along side. But even though he's a bit of hindrance, Mario plays a lasting part in the story and is really a true friend to Rico. I don't want to go in too deep so I don't spoil it for anyone who's interested in the game. It's just nice to have relatable characters in a game where causing havoc with no regard to safety is the main goal. By the way the image below is not of Mario, just a couple more interesting folks.
So back on day one of the release I mentioned things like long load screens and lots of cut scenes etc. that slow down the games movement and kind of break up the flow. Well, the good thing is that after the initial training and first couple of missions you're free to go about your business however you see fit. This helps to minimise load screens and it's pretty cool to be able to go anywhere at any time and even just skip the story mode if you choose to. There are only a few large military bases that pretty much have to be liberated by playing the story missions. Freedom of exploration has always been a big deal in this series and it's good that Just Cause 3 has kept that going.
Something else I mentioned in my first impression that I should revise here is that the main enemy in the game is the Di Ravello Militia. So the game has you literally fighting DRM. But when you start the game up it logs you in to your Square Enix account and makes you take part in leaderboard nonsense and what have you. One could argue as I did that is in fact drm in itself. However even with all the seemingly mandatory login stuff it's not actually mandatory. Here's why. So you start the game, and before you even get menu options, you're logged in. However if your login fails for some reason or you happen to lose your connection in game, it makes no difference. You're not kicked out to the main menu or removed from play, instead you just can't take part in the leaderboards until the connection is reestablished. So yes, drm in the fact that you have no choice in being connected or not, but not drm in the fact that if you do lose a connection you can still play in offline mode. The worst of it is that the game will pause while it tries to reconnect, this only takes a few moments and also only when you open your map which effectively pauses the game anyway so who cares. For PC at least, you'll even be able to go into offline mode through Steam and still play with the same results, just no leaderboards. So in my opinion this is in fact pretty well handled drm-ish material and has little to no effect on game play.
So, on to the fictional Island of Medici. This is a really pretty place guys. The landscape is beautiful and feels very natural. You'll see these really lovely cliffs and hills, fields dotted with ancient ruins and small charming Mediterranean coastal villages filled with people going about their every day lives. You'll see folks driving on the roads, working fields on tractors, tourists taking selfies and talking on cell phones it all feels very normal and work-a-day until you hear the propaganda being spouted by speakers mounted near buildings and on vans driving around town. You'll see billboards and statues dedicated to the vanity of Di Ravello. Militia will always be near by, armed and ready to strong arm anyone who steps out of line. This is a beautiful place idyllic in it's very nature, but everywhere you look there is a military presence. It really sets the mood, and puts you in the shoes of a guy who can make a difference.
Graphically, this is a wonder. Just Cause 3 has a 400 square mile, seamless map. View distances are great, you can literally see for miles. The ocean surrounding Medici is one of the best and most real feeling I've seen in a game. You'll be able to see deep in to the water and watch the waves roll in. The further out you look you'll see white caps and larger swells. The lighting is wonderful and volumetric. Clouds and trees cast rays when the sun is behind them. When it rains everything gets wet and after the storm has passed you're left with puddles in the roads that dry slowly over time. Get in a helicopter and hover it close to the ground and you'll see dust fly and vegitation fluttering under the heavy wind it causes. Likewise with water. The UI is a little noisy, it makes sure to put everything right in your face so you can see it, but it's not too tough to tune out once you get used to it. Particle effects are of course amazing, because you can't give players the option to blow up everything from gas cans to fuel storage tanks to mega sized bucket wheel excavators without having excellent particle effects. The game runs great as well, very optimised. I experienced very few frame drops overall, which is saying a lot for a game with a map this big running at max settings.
My system is a few years old now with a couple of more modern upgrades but I'm running an AMD Phenom 2, 3.3gz 6 core 1100T processor coupled with an AMD XFX R9 280x GPU with 3 gigs on board video ram and 16gigs of 1600 mhz system ram. Also my games drive is a standard 7200 rpm, 2 terabyte HDD, so I don't even have the added access speed from an SSD. For those who can utilize it, this game also supports 4k resolution.
A side note here, the devs put in these cool tributes to loved ones. I just feel this is worth mentioning.
There were some initial issues for us AMD users who had these crazy tears in the world due to some updates that came from the new Crimson graphics drivers themselves. I showed a screenshot of that back here. This wasn't Avalanche's fault everyone, leave them alone in that matter and keep in mind that a fix is in the works. For me and many others the latest beta driver updates from AMD fixed the issue. This wasn't case for everyone, but reverting to older drivers should fix that problem as well.
Sounds are also super good. Wind whips through your ears while you're parachuting or wingsuiting. Cars and boats have great engine noises, aircraft are loud and very realistic. You'll have the chance on many occasions to just stand there and listen to jet take off from a runway and I suggest doing it. Weapon noises and explosions sound pretty convincing as well. Overall there's a very visceral feeling to it all.
Gameplay itself is fun, even though there are really only a few things to do to progress in the game. It's a matter of how you go about doing those things that gives Just Cause 3 it's variety. You can choose to assault a base on foot with the good old run and gun up close and personal attitude, which works just fine and is a lot of fun. You can also assault that same base by jumping in a stolen military tank and firing cannon rounds at everything, also very satisfying. You can fly in with a helicopter and fire rockets or missiles, or swoop in on a bomber and crater the place. You can skydive from a cliff overlooking it all and just parachute in guns blazing, throwing grenades and liberate the whole place without ever touching the ground. These and many other ways to accomplish your goals will help remove some of the repetitiveness that can take place when the excitement of having an infinite parachute, a retractable grappling hook and access to pretty much any weapon and vehicle you want wears off. I mean, honestly would you just walk up to an enemy and shoot them with your pistol to get the job done? Or would you instead take a liking to spearing them with a grappling hook then attaching the other end to a near by gas bottle so you can shoot that then sit back and watch the guy rocket hundreds of feet in the air ending in an explosion that happens to bring down an enemy helicopter that was flying too close? If you chose the first option then you're better off going back to Halo or something.
I never noticed the game to be particularly difficult. Most enemies aren't very tough, and Rico can take a lot of punishment. Even if you are defeated, your progress up to that point is saved so it means very little. I guess I'm saying if you're looking for a challenge, this isn't really going to scratch that itch. But if you want to have fun in a great and many times even humorous setting, this is your jam. 
Just Cause 3 gives players a few more options than just liberating bases and towns. You'll unlock challenges that earn you points toward improving the effectiveness of your gear. There are daredevil jumps when the goal is to grab a car or motorcycle and drive super fast off a big ramp over a thousand foot drop and score points based on how cool you did it. There's also a bomb blast mode where you'll be given a vehicle with a big bomb that will explode if you drive to slow, but if you make it to your goal and bail out before it explodes it will just blow the absolute crap out of the enemy you're targeting. And... you can choose to drive that vehicle in to a military base if you wish and blow that up instead. There are wing suit courses, plane and helicopter courses and boat races. There's this really cool grappling hook trial where you're given a vehicle and what equates to a magnet. You attach the magnet to the vehicle and drive around collecting a mineral to drop in a pit while the military is trying to blast you away. The goal of all these challenges is to unlock things for your gear, I.E. stronger cables for your grappling hook, and different modes for your planted explosives etc. After you beat the game you can even revert towns and bases to their oppressed state so you can liberate them again. Awesome replay-ability.
I'd also Like to give props to the design teams. They actually made some original and really cool vehicles for this game. Plus if you can see it, you can drive it. Just bring it to a garage and Mario will chop it for you allowing the rebels to drop it wherever you may need it. This includes all vehicles: cars, motorcycles, boats, tanks, planes and helicopters. A rebel drop will also give you weapons and ammo if you so choose. To get a rebel drop you'll need to use a beacon that Rico throws on the ground. These beacons are refillable at various places throughout Medici.
Something I just can't stand about the game though is a thing like, $25 dlc on day one of release. This of course spans more than just the Just Cause 3 game, it's a widespread problem. Xcom 2 will also have day one dlc, in fact it's on sale already and the game's now due out until February. This is just in general a bad way to release games. There's no reason why these skins and color changes shouldn't be unlocked through playing a game we've already purchased. Especially because if developers have the time to create dlc that goes on sale immediately, then they should be able to release a bug-free product (ahem, Bethesda). And what's with the prices guys? At least make the incentive to buy worth it.
Anyway, my play through took me around 60 hours. This is a pretty good play value in my opinion. The story itself is probably only worth about 12 to 15 hours of play time if you just skip the liberations and blow through story mode only. However this is a game about being awesome. Think of Rico as a character from the Expendables movies. Of course you're gonna blow shit up! This is rediculous fun that had me actually laughing and wide eyed through most of it.
Would I recommend Just Cause 3? Yes, I would certainly recommend it. If you're looking for mindless fun or a playable action movie this is your game. As well as the other Just Cause titles. I might suggest waiting for a sale only because if you've played the other games in the series then you've played this one as well. But I definitely liked Just Cause 3 and I'm sure you guys will too.
System requirements for Just Cause 3 are as follows.
MINIMUM:
OS: Vista SP2 / Windows 7.1 SP1 / Windows 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
Processor: Intel Core i5-2500k, 3.3GHz / AMD Phenom II X6 1075T 3GHz
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 (2GB) / AMD Radeon HD 7870 (2GB)
Storage: 54 GB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Vista SP2 / Windows 7.1 SP1 / Windows 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz / AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 (3GB) / AMD R9 290 (4GB)
Storage: 54 GB available space
Here are some more screens from Medici. Just stuff too cool not to share.
So I was playing with boats in Just Cause 3 and I decided, just 'cause (see what I did there?), to see just how long it would take to encircle the islands and then bore you guys with some math about the whole experience. So I had the rebel forces drop me a fast boat and I set up my stop watch. The image below shows the path I took.
Just Cause 3 has a map size that claims 400 square miles, which translated puts the playable area at around 1036 square kilometers. My trip around Medici didn't include the Volcano in the northwest portion of the map, nor did it include Boom Island to the far southwest, which is covered by the logo in the image above. I chose to circle the islands central to play and I started and ended the trip to the far southeast at one of the bases in Sirocco Sud. Travel was done clockwise around the islands giving the land a fair berth to avoid restricted areas and slow speeds.
I did this with a series of way points and by the time the test was over I had traveled a distance of 85 kilometers or around 52 miles and it took me 48 minutes and 20 seconds at around an average speed of 62 knots, or 115.9 kilometers per hour, or 72 miles per hour. Calculated that puts the area inside my travel at around 216 square miles or 559 square kilometers. So if it were a real place the island of Medici would be roughly comparable in size to the Isle Of Man between Ireland and the U.K. which weighs in at around 221 square miles, or 572 square kilometers.
Perspective can be pretty cool. On the one hand 400 square miles is a big ass area and a huge achievement to create in a game world. Props to Avalanche. On the other hand in real life terms there have been wildfires that size here in California in fairly recent history. For instance, the Rim fire burned very close to where I live and covered a little over 400 square miles.
Another thing Just Cause 3 has is probably the best ocean I've seen built in a game. Now facts aside, here are a few screen shots from JC3 boat trip!
So guys, the time is here. Ive been playing Divinity: Original Sin, Enhanced Edition pretty religiously since it's release in October, and after around 100 hours of play time, I'm sad to say it's done. Below you will find my review of this beautifully crafted turn based RPG and I'll admit straight off that I'm a bit biased because this game is in my opinion one of, if not the best, RPG of it's type out there now. So without further ado....
Those of you who know about Divinity: Original Sin, already know that folks who own the game got a free copy of the enhanced edition. Original Sin is a really great game with a beautifully lit, well crafted world containing excellent dialogue that tells a very good, if a bit predictable, story. When it was released the enhanced edition brought to the table something like 1300 changes and additions. Some of the most immediately noticeable of these are the now fully voice acted cast, the 360 degree camera controls, Direct X 11 support and greatly reduced load screen times. Many, many more changes become evident as you play, even some extra content and the free inclusion of the DLC from Original Sin.
So here's the rundown: When you start a new game you'll have the choice of playing in single player mode where you can either play by yourself or with a friend in split screen. Or you can choose multiplayer, where you'll begin a game online and can then invite your friends to join your game and play cooperatively. The single player and multiplayer options do use different save files though, so there's no playing your online characters in offline mode. Luckily you'll have the availability of creating multiple profiles so you can have an online game with friends on one profile while playing your single player game on another. Either way you'll be creating and playing two characters that are referred to as Source Hunters.
"Source" is the game's name for magic and was tainted eons ago by an ancient evil. As a result it's not looked upon happily by most people and the Source Hunters are there to find "Sourcerers" and judge them. Not all Source is bad however, as the game tells you early on, but the lines are very vague and you'll be seeing and using many different types throughout your time playing so it's mostly a story item. Soon, you two Source Hunters are pulled away from what's to be your first assignment and drawn in to a world changing event. Thus begins your quest to be all that you can be and save the world.
Pretty typical plot line, but where Divinity differs is that as your characters will constantly change their opinions about things. This is handled by you as the player, both through dialogue options with NPCs and your individual party members. You might even draw different conclusions between your two main characters resulting in an argument that is to be solved with a mini-game. Dialogues can and often will change your characters traits and those traits have a direct effect on how other NPC's and even your own party members treat you. Just remember that the things you say in dialogues have consequences. Even though these changes won't directly affect the story itself, they do help the story to be told in a way that feels so much deeper and a lot less linear than the typical "Chosen one saves the world" path.
To get started you'll be put into a tutorial area that will run you through movement, party selection, inventory and character screens, camera controls etc. and very soon you'll be in the action. Rivellon itself, this is the world where Divinity: Original Sin takes place, is utterly beautiful. The maps are richly colored and well lit, the layouts are sensible, and the locales are pretty nice to look at. There are times when you might be traveling through an area and there will be a break in the trees opening up to a far off view and this kind of thing is really eye-catching to me. Texture resolution isn't crazy high but it's by no means blotchy or ugly. The lava and magma textures in particular are pretty superb. There is a depth of field option in the menu if you hate that blur in the background that's out of focus. Overall though this game is as beautiful to look at as it is to play.
As always, click on images to see them full size
Exploration is totally free except for a few locked doors early on that the local guards won't open until you're considered strong enough, but feel free to run around and talk to everybody. NPCs are useful, mostly. Some of them have canned dialogue but lots of them actually have something to say, and quite a few of them have side quests to pick up and perform. Even some animals have quests for you, pick up the "pet friend" skill and you'll see for yourself. And folks, I really suggest trying to do every quest and side quest that is available to do. Rewards are usually good, but really what you're looking for with questing (aside from story progression) is experience. Monsters don't respawn, so you can't just go grind a level to catch up if you chose not to deliver that note in your pack.
Quests in Divinity are not level based. That is to say the log doesn't suggest what level you should be to take something on, and some quests will last you through several areas in the game with many ways to progress. It's up to you to decide if and when you're ready to take something on. Some quests require the solving of puzzles, which can be quite a challenge. If you get stuck, just stop and think, and take a look around, they're very solvable. Remember that pet friend skill? Maybe try talking to a passing rat, they can help with hints in tough situations. 
Speaking of puzzles: One place I never finished fully was a point later in the game that required the placement of characters on pressure plates to open doors in specific areas that require teleporting and just too much sequencing for me to want to finish. Luckily enough for me that area only had one necessary line of progression and the rest was optional so it was fine, but I would have had to check a walk-through to make it through there with total completion.
Save your game often and use multiple save points. Combat can be very challenging, which is wonderful in a world of games that give you a "win button". If you find yourself getting your posterior served to you on a shiny plate, try reloading your game and coming at the fight from a different angle; and remember, ambushes happen pretty often so it's easy to be caught off guard. A suggestion from me is that every fight you win, make sure you heal your party up to full and wait for your cooldowns to refresh. The downtime is minimal and it'll save you some frustration in case you move three steps and start another fight when you're not at 100%. Battles are handled very well, balance is pretty even until you're much stronger when you'll be outnumbered... a lot. Winning a fight that has had you pulling your hair out is really satisfying especially when you hit the alt key and see all that precious loot on the ground. And what's great is that if you find yourself just stuck regardless, you can often just go back to town and buy some scrolls or upgrade your gear to give yourself a bit of an upper hand. The game gives you everything you need to make your play time successful.
I can't talk about combat without going into systems a bit. So, when you're just moving about the world it's a click and move ARPG type system. However when you start combat this initiates turn based mode. Your characters will stand in formation and the game will begin to determine your place in battle by your stat numbers. Characters with higher initiative will have a place in battle earlier than those with lower initiative, I.E. Rangers, Rogues etc. Higher strength will allow the use of heavier gear and affect the damage output of melee characters. I.E. knights, fighters, etc. One character at a time will have their turn in battle and will be using their Action Points to perform actions and move across the battlefield. These action points and skill costs in battle are also affected by your character's stats.
Don't worry though this is not nearly as complicated as it sounds. The game does a great job at making things clear to you. Explanations are available with a little mouse hovering and the information is clear and easy to understand. Not to mention you have all the time you want to make a decision, there's no timer on a character's turn. Have a party member with the "Lore Master" skill? Right click on an enemy and examine them to see their strengths and vulnerabilities. Have a party member who's skills would be best applied after the battle is a bit further in? Just delay their turn until the end of the set. Character skills and spells will work with and against each other though their own effects and the environment. So if your in combat and are suddenly lit on fire by a flaming archer, one of your party might cast the "Rain" spell and stop the burning while at the same time weakening the flaming archer. This rain will make the ground wet though so make sure your air caster doesn't use a lightning spell or you might stun your whole party for a few turns. You'll learn quickly how the environment can change and effect the way a battle plays out.
Gearing your party up is pretty simple. Vendors have a lot of goods varying from basic food items, to crafting and skill based ingredients, to the standard fare of arms and armor. As a vendor gets to know you more and more their attitude towards your individual party members will change and that affects the prices for buying and selling as well as repairs and identification of new magical items. You're also going to find a great number of items via combat you can either use right away or keep on hand to sell for funding your shopping sprees. Also on a related side note your party's inventory is as big as it needs to be. Your characters are only limited by the weight they can carry, which is a lot. I never ran into a problem with carry limits.
Both versions of Original Sin also have a crafting system. This means you can make a lot of items to help you along the way as long you have the skill and the ingredients. Everything from food, to magical arrow types, to weapons and armor can be created by you. You'll need the skill and the equipment required to make this happen of course. For instance the basic "crafting" skill will allow you to dye your armors different colors and provide the ability to create thrown items, like grenades that can have effects ranging from damaging enemies to healing your own party members, as long you have the raw ingredients. Likewise cooking is handled with the crafting skill and will allow you to make food that has various effects on your party members, you'll need a cooking pot, but they're easy to come by. "Blacksmithing", allows the creation of weapons and armor and lets you improve items you already have as long as you're near a forge or whetstone. It'll also let you repair your own gear for free from anywhere as long you have a repair hammer or tongs in your inventory.
I personally didn't use the crafting skills much beyond the ability to repair my own items and dye my gear new colors. However, I know of people who spend a lot of time crafting in this game and there are special recipes to be found that can create some pretty spectacular items that can then be improved throughout your time playing. I think during my next play through I'll spend some time making gear and seeing what's out there.
You'll of course want to gear your party members toward their skills and stats. For instance my two main characters are a Knight and a Cleric. I wanted to gear the cleric toward strength and intelligence. Easy enough but it meant I had to sacrifice some constitution or I'd end up with a fairly squishy healer. So I decided to make her a sword and board type and went with a one handed weapon specialty, and shield specialty. The block chance that the shield gave was enough to compensate for the lost constitution and a lot of stat points were made up for by the higher level gear I found as the game went on. This of course meant that I was looking for one handed weapons and shields primarily, and with enough strength she was also able to wear heavier armors without taking as much of a penalty for movement and actions in combat.
This brings me to one of the best and most comprehensive features of this game. Character creation and development. Yeah I know it seems like this should have been much further up in the review but you'll understand why I waited in a moment. As mentioned at the beginning of the article you're creating two main characters when you start a new game. You'll decide the sex of the two and the way they look and also their starting class. Therein is the key *starting* class. You'll choose from quite a few presets and are given points to distribute to get you started, but as you play you're in no way locked in to playing that class. 
Let's say you started a Rogue, and as you're playing you're deciding you're not really into the class skills or the way the character is playing in general. Well you can decide as you level up to train in different skills, change the way your stat points are being placed and pretty soon you've got pretty decent fighter that can dual wield, or a really stealthy mage class that can also back-stab the crap out of baddies. You can really play however you want to. And at one point ---this is a very minor spoiler so skip to the next paragraph if you just can't handle it--- you'll even gain access to an NPC who can completely refund your points so you can respec your character. The fee for this is great however and I recommend thinking about that choice at length before committing to it. At least give yourself a backup save beforehand.
I chose to more or less stay with the preset classes that I made because I had the idea of what my party should consist of and that really never faltered. I played the game with two Knights, a Cleric and a Ranger. Everyone could take a hit and deal damage, and two of those classes could heal and remove bad status and afflictions. It made for a very well balanced party for me. The problem with the character development being what it is in Divinity Enhanced, is that if you put the game down for a couple of weeks you might forget how you were building your party. That could potentially hamper your progression in a pretty bad way. But if you're like me, you won't be able to stop once you pick it up.
--MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD-- Before I get to the conclusion I'm going to include one major spoiler. So here's your chance to skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read about it. And the only reason I'm doing this is because it can cause so much frustration I think some people might just quit the game. It's the only item in this game, either Original Sin or the Enhanced Edition, that I would consider a truly poorly designed element. So the thing is, early on you'll have an opportunity to gain a party member named Bairdotr. She's got a great voice casting and is a very good member to have in your party. If you decide differently then this may mean nothing to you. So Bairdotr's goal in the game is to find a friend of hers who's gone missing. You'll find this out very early in the game, less than 10 hours in. You'll have her in your party investing time and effort and perhaps like in my case, making her a pretty key member. Then around 60 hours in you'll come to discover her friend that she's been trying to find, just through exploration. As you approach this person a dialogue will begin automatically between he and Bairdotr. Now, if you have been staying consistent in your dialogues throughout your play time you'll be gaining traits for your characters. If you've gained the trait "Obedient" by this time, Bairdotr will leave your party and turn against you. There are no indications throughout your dialogues with Bairdotr at any point during your time playing that anything untoward is taking place, and there's nothing you can say or do to change her decision to leave when it happens. I was left mouth agape and fuming. Here I was with a party member that I'd spent the better part of 50-ish hours developing, and just like that, with zero warning, she's an enemy. What the actual fuck is that?! However if your dialogue choices have managed to gain you the "Independent" trait beforehand instead, this is the opposite of the "Obedient" trait, Bairdotr stays with you and all that time you spent building a powerful character won't go to waste. Again though, there is no indication that her attitude toward you has changed until your party is in range of Bairdotr's friend and the dialogue between them starts. I was lucky enough to be able to load a game a couple of hours back and enter dialogues with a couple of other story NPCs that gave me the proper trait and thereby allowed me to keep Bairdotr in my party. You can also cheat the quest by carefully approaching Bairdotr's friend in question with her being kept out of range to engage in dialogue, and just attack and kill the guy without talking to him at all. This will avoid Bairdotr leaving; but the quest is never resolved that way. This was an extremely frustrating obstacle to run across in a title as well polished and put together as this one. My opinion on the subject is that the dialogue should have been handled through the same mini-game that handles arguments with the winning result being "Independent" and the losing result being "Obedient". This would at least give you the chance to keep Bairdotr without dozens of hours of pre-planning; and if you lost, well at least you lost fairly. 
So in conclusion, Divinity: Original Sin, Enhanced Edition is a really well made, beautiful and challenging turn based RPG with a great story. One of the best of it's kind in my unwavering opinion, and I'll be playing it through again before too long I'm sure. So would I recommend this title? Does and old Mazda rotary engine require 2-stroke mix oil in the gas? The answer is hell yes it does, and hell yes I would recommend this title! If you like a good RPG, with great mechanics, play this. If you already have Original Sin but haven't picked up and started playing the Enhanced Edition, play this. Is it worth starting over from scratch from the previous version? Probably not, depends on how far you're in already, but you're gonna want to play again at some point and in that case, play this. The changes and additions the Enhanced Edition brings make it basically a new game. It's worth it people! You're going to love it, and if you don't... then you're not my friend anymore.
System Requirements for Divinity: Original Sin, Enhanced Edition are as follows:
MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600 or equivalent
Memory: 2048 MB RAM
Graphics: DirectX 11 Compatible GPU
DirectX: Version 11
Hard Drive: 10000 MB available space
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64-bit or Windows 8.1 64-bit or Windows 10 64-bit
Processor: Intel i5 2400 or higher
Memory: 4096 MB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 550 or ATI™ Radeon™ HD 6XXX or higher
DirectX: Version 11
Hard Drive: 10000 MB available space
I must preface this by saying that I have not tried using this controller and this is purely my opinion.
This is the month of October and during this month Microsoft is releasing a high end pro gaming peripheral in the form of the Xbox One Elite Wireless Controller.
You'll get a high quality Wireless Xbox One controller redesigned with customizable metal thumb sticks, a faceted cover for the D-pad for increased accuracy, smoother action buttons and triggers, along with extra buttons in the form of paddles that connect under the controller. You'll also get a rubberized grip that provides extra comfort and staying power for intense battles combating sweaty hands. The Elite Controller will come with a hard case for storage, batteries and a bunch of interchangeable components along with a braided USB to mini USB cable for a wired connection to your PC. Available for Xbox and Widows 10 will also be an app that allows for configuration remapping for the Elite controller.
So you'll get a lot with your package, and that's awesome. The Elite Controller promises to be highly customizable, very high quality product for those who are really serious about their gaming. Which is great because that's the demographic here, serious gamers. For everything you get, which is admittedly a lot, you'll have to shell out $149.99.....!! I'll say it again even though this is written and you can just read it, the Xbox One Wireless Elite Controller will cost you one hundred and fifty dollars, exclamation point!
I won't be purchasing one of these. That cost point by itself is a deal breaker for me and I game a lot. Like, a lot. I use an Xbox One controller for my PC and I love it. It's really accurate, it's very smooth, very comfortable, so far very durable and in my opinion it's worth the money. Now I don't have a rubberized grip or extra paddle buttons or three sets of metal interchangeable thumb sticks. This would be super cool, I admit that 100%. But I don't deem those things worth nearly three times the cost of the standard controller. No, not even with the redesigned internal architecture that allows such a level of reconfiguration. With everything the Elite Controller comes with I could see spending maybe $80, that would be my ceiling.
Now, I haven't tried using the Elite Controller. I'm just a guy who like most, doesn't get demo access to new products. This thing could be incredible. But incredible or not that's a lot of money to throw down on a controller. Not to mention I can't find any information on the app that will be available for configurations, I can't even say if that's free or not. Microsoft's video showcasing the controller and app doesn't mention if it's free or if it costs, but I do notice the wording "app available..." on their site so I'm not holding my breath for free. I also can't find any information about the app via Google or any forum conversations. Someone out there must know....right?
Competition gamers may find the price tag acceptable, and that's ok because that's the target demographic here; but I'm sticking to laughable myself. Think about buying an Xbox One. That's $300 by itself. Now buy two Elite Controllers, there's another $300. Want a full set or four? Well, the math is pretty simple. When will we as gamers stop paying all this extra money for what usually equates to a few extra features that we probably won't even use. Look, I get that a lot of work went in to making this controller a reality, and you'll get a lot in the package should you make the purchase. And I get that the whole thing is very high quality, this is wonderful. But it's too much money! Of course nobody has to buy one of these right? No one is forcing them on us. Yet I still have to say, Microsoft, at least buy us dinner first.
[all image credits: Microsoft]