Skyrim: Dawnguard Review

Skyrim was easily one of the best games of last year in my opinion, it just had so much hours of content to play through. There was that much content that there is still some quests I need to do in the main game! I have been waiting for DLC for this game since last year and now it is finally here lets see if Dawnguard is up there with Shivering Isles.

The story

Now the story of this DLC is all about vampires but there is a twist to this you can either fight against them or join them. Which ever decision you pick it will alter the story. Choosing to fight against the vampires means you will join the Dawnguard if however you join with the vampires it gets much more interesting, you can become a vampire lord that brings with it a whole lot of extra features that I will talk about later. 

The story will take you around 7-10 hours to complete and once you have done one story you can do it again and pick the other option to get another 7-10 hours of gameplay out of this DLC. The actual story of the game was OK it wasn't great but it wasn't bad either, I can't really go into much details because of spoilers. In my opinion the joining the vampires quest was the better of the two and it was like they wanted you to pick that option as you get asked many times if you would like to join with the vampires although the joining the Dawnguard quest is OK too.

What new features do we get in the DLC?

I first want to talk about the major story features that you get when joining with the vampires. When you join with them and become a vampire lord here is some of the extras that come with it you can turn in to a bunch of bats and teleport, raise the dead, drain enemies life and float around. The features you get as a vampire lord are pretty cool and bring some freshness to the Skyrim game although it has some good I am sad to say there is also some bad as well which I will talk about later in the review.

Some of the features you can also expect from the new DLC is brand new weapons, armour and shouts but that is just the start of it also added to Skyrim through the DLC is legendary dragons, horseback combat, crossbows and finally a brand new perk system for werewolves. There is quite a lot of new content in the DLC and along with the new quests its a pretty solid DLC package.

Problems?

Yes there was quite a few problems I had with the DLC. The first problem I had was with the vampire lord although he can bring with him some very cool additions he can bring some annoying limitations like not being able to open chests or open doors for you to be able to do any of these you have to switch back to human which will take some time as well so you might be switching a lot if you are a vampire lord. One major problem I also had with the DLC was there was a really bad freeze bug in the DLC were it would freeze for a seconds and also freeze totally and not come back on. 


The Final Verdict

The first DLC for Skyrim was decent its no Shivering Isles but it is still a good DLC that will give you over 10+ hours of extra content for 1600 points which is a little steep but when you think of the content you are getting it is almost worth it. There is some good and there is some bad with the DLC the vampire lord limitations were a let down and the freezing got annoying but the good is its stacked with new content ranging from weapons to shouts to new perk systems and gives you more Skyrim which is always a good thing.


+ Stacked with content
+ 10+ hours of gameplay

- Bad freezing issues
- Vampire lord limitations

+/- OK story some might hate it some might like it

Final score

7.5/10

The Walking Dead - Episode 2 Starved For Help Review

This review will contain minor spoilers/plot details 

Walking Dead episode 2 is finally here and I can say it is still as good as the first episode and maybe even better. The gameplay remains the same so you can read about all my thoughts on the gameplay in my episode 1 review. This review and the other episodes will be talking about the story more and the direction the new episodes take.

Episode 2 is set 3 months after the 1st episode there is also a new member to the group called Mark who brings with him a bunch of food to keep them going but now that the food almost all gone its time to find food for the group. This episode takes a completely different direction to the 1st episode the 2nd episode is all about survival while the 1st was more about action and killing zombies with bits of survival. You can tell because you only fight one zombie in the whole episode.

I have 2 different playthroughs of The Walking Dead one good one were Lee does all the right things and one were he makes bad decisions I can say that the two episodes felt different, people acted different towards Lee and the dialogue from the other characters were also very different. The decisions you have to make make in episode 2 make episode one's choices look simple, at the end of the game it tells you what else everyone chose (in percentages) and the hightest percentage difference was 53%/47% episode 1 had percentages differences of like 74%/36% but episode 2's decisions are almost even for all of them! 

One of the smaller decisions in the game that I can go into detial without being a spoiler is near the start of the game when the food is running low Lee has to pick 4 people who get to eat while the other 6 are left hungry. The other 6 being left without food will impact the rest of the episode later down the line as they will ask why you didn't pick them if you pick good dialogue choices you can make them think otherwise but if you pick bad dialogue choices you can further impact the relationship between the two characters even further. 

People are wondering does episode 1 choices really matter? Yes they do actually there is a few times were you are confronted by a group member for something you did in episode 1 one of the dialogues I got was by Kenny asking me why was I not loyal to him or his family in the past.

One final thing I would like to bring up is this episode is INTENSE! Near the end you will get what I mean, your mouths will be left open in shock at parts of this game whether it will be a shocking decision, a shocking twist to the story or even something violent. Episode 2 was another solid entry to The Walking Dead video game series.

The Final Verdict

Episode 2 of The Walking Dead might have been just a little bit better than episode 1 because of those intense moments in the game that you will understand once you have completed the game. Episode 2 also has the awesome voice acting that we heard in episode 1 and the choices system is still as awesome as it was in episode 1. I hope the decisions we get in episode 3 leave us scratching our heads even more and make us think "WHAT THE HELL SHOULD I DO!!!" all I can say is BRING ON EPISODE 3!

+Voice acting 

+Intense

+Tough choices

-Had some freezing and audio problems at times

Final score

9/10

The Amazing Spiderman Video Game Review

One of my favorite Spiderman games of all time is Spiderman 2. I just loved swinging around the city and doing side missions while also playing some of the main game at the same time. I loved the free roaming of Spiderman games and I have missed it because recent Spiderman games do not include free roaming so I was happy to hear free roaming is back and side missions are also back! After hearing these were back in the game I was really excited to play the game but lets see if it was worth the wait. 

When I first started the game I loved the combat gameplay it is simple and easy to just pick up and start beating up some bad guys. The game also features some pretty cool looking combos for us to use as well. The gameplay reminds me a little bit of the Batman Arkham games which is defiantly a good thing! Another gameplay feature that I found very early into the game is the web rush that will help you get through certain obstacles like the laser detection's in the opening level this is another good feature to the game and lastly at the end of the first level you will be introduced to the games upgrade menu in the form of a cellphone this will not only let you purchase tech upgrades and character upgrades its also the place were you can look at your stats, email and the map of the city. 

The phone gives you a nice selection of upgrades to unlock. Some of the upgrades you will see are combat boosts and attack damage for the characters upgrade and web strength and rapid fire for tech upgrades. For me the combat gameplay is a big plus for just being simple and also fun. One problem I found with the gameplay though was there is no button to stick to the wall it just automatically 
does it this can cause you to stick to the walls when you don't want to.

After the first mission is over you are now let out into the big city and no I will not blame you for having a little swing around the city before started the next mission its what I did. I am happy to say that the swinging around the city is still as fun as ever. You can also use that web rush that I talked about before to get to certain places quicker and it is another good addition to the Spiderman games. Although I don't mind webs do not stick to buildings but it must be noted for people who do care about things like this but like I said it is just a minor thing and shouldn't affect your playthrough of this game. 

You will also encounter early in the game the first of the boss fights that are featured in The Amazing Spiderman. I thought the boss fights in the game are OK they can be a little repetitive but there not too bad. As the game progresses you will unlock Spiderman's apartment this were you can replay levels, change costumes and view the stuff you have collected while playing the game which brings me to the next part of the review the collectibles there is many things to collect in the game you can even collect comic
pages that you can actually read in the extras menu! That is a cool extra to the game but it comes at price you have to find 700 of these pages which will take you quite a bit of time to find. I mentioned in the first paragraph about the return of side missions these include stopping crimes in progress or helping someone in need they are repetitive and some are not fun but it does add more to play time to game which is always good. 

The story is different than usual. The story is actually after the movie ended its not a retelling of the movies story its a brand new epilogue to the movie. With this being a epilogue there is some major movie spoilers so if you are waiting to watch the movie spoiler free I would wait until after watching to pick this game up so you don't get spoiled. The in game story is little uninteresting for me but I won't go into to detail because of movie and game spoilers. The final bits of the game I want to talk about is the graphics and sound. Spiderman looks really good graphic wise and the city looks good as well. The sound is also another plus with some good voice acting for this game although there is something very annoying I would like to point out when Spiderman is swinging through the city he will start shouting "WOOOOOOOOO" and "OH YEHAHHHH" this can become really annoying after a while. 


The final verdict

The Amazing Spiderman may not be "Amazing" but it is a very good entry in to the Spiderman video game series it offers a brand new cannon storyline, the return of free roaming, fun gameplay and other features. There is also other stuff you can after completing the game to increase game time like collectibles and side missions. The main story can be completed in around 9-10 hours and adding everything else your game time could come close to the 20 hour+ mark. Although the story and bosses are kind of a let down there is still many things that makes this a solid addition to the Spiderman video game series and a game that you should buy. 


+Gameplay is fun and easy to get used to
+Good voice acting
+Web swinging
+Free roaming

-Some boss battles (Not all)
-Story


Final score

8/10 

Mass Effect 3 - Extended Cut DLC Thoughts

This contains major ending spoilers!





This DLC is just new endings with no gameplay so I wouldn't even call it a review just my own quick thoughts on the endings.




In my opinion I thought the endings are defiantly an improvement from the original endings. Here are some of the reasons why I liked the endings.

• Shepard gets a final farewell from the crew as they add his name to the memorial 

• Added a totally new option called "Reject" this is were you can tell the kid you don't want to choose anything which is something I would have loved to have as a option in the original ending.

• There is more of A conclusion at the end of the endings 

• Its just something minor but I liked how everyone who died during your ME playthrough gets a final farewell at the end

• The end of the ending with the kid and Grandpa actually tells us that the story was true the original ending made many people confused if it was Grandpas own story or if he was retelling a true story. 

The ending with Shepard still breathing remains and nothing extra happened with that so maybe a new DLC or game is being hinted or maybe it is left for us to think what happens next. I would love more DLC for Mass Effect 3 and I hope Bioware is thinking about making some more. Oh its free so go download it right now!!


I won't give this any scores or any other kind of review stuff I will just say I am happy with the new endings they are much better than before and again I hope we get more Mass Effect whether its DLC or even a new game...?