Bloodborne

No doubt you have already heard about the famous Bloodborne and the infamous difficulty of “Souls” inspired games. Bloodborne is no different, it rightfully earns its status of a hard and challenging game, it constantly keeps pushing players reflexes and skills to the limits and its unforgiving world is not afraid to utterly break you over and over again. There are two player types, one that will be intimidated by this and shortly after stepping into the game world find themselves unable to progress and eventually give up, and then there are those who will endure, retry, and ultimately learn how to survive and emerge victorius.If you give it a chance and tame it, Bloodborne is sure to to give you back much more, like the ever amazing feeling of success against overwhelming odds that lasts for so long even after turning the console off.

The atmosphere of Bloodborne is creepy, and that’s putting it lightly. From Software is no stranger to creepy and strange, eerie environments that makes us look over the shoulder just to shrug off the feeling of being watched and followed but Bloodborne brings it to a whole new level with its rotting and light ridden streets of Yharnam, a Victorian architecture town where the events of Bloodborne take place. The whole city feels threatening and evil and no place makes you feel actually safe, not even when you reach a safe checkpoint which happens only ever so often and trips between these are always filled with new dangers, challenges and all kinds of nastiness along the way. You will probably spend a lot of time roaming the spiderweb of streets and tunnels looking for the safest passage and route in between these, evading angry mobs of insane village folk armed with shed tools that they want to introduce you with. It also adds to the atmosphere and sheer horror of the whole universe, not knowing where you’ll end up or what you will find, who you will fight or run into but be sure that you can expect everything from angry peasants to patched-up flesh monsters or unknown alien cosmic horrors that radiate creepiness and are likely to send a chill down even the most hardcore horror gamers spine.

The story, once again, you are called to investigate and dig throughout the game to find it yourself. What From Software willingly shares with us is scarce and obscure, revealing only the most basic and fundamental aspects of it to a player. it is up to you to pursue the lore as any other gameplay aspect, which is a good and a bad thing at the same time, depending on how you look at it. For me personally, story is important and, while not really a huge fan of From Softwares way to tell a story, I still like it. The fact that encourages you to try and piece it together adds a completely new aspect to a game. So, just like in “Souls” titles, a player should keep his ears tuned for whispers in the wind, mummlings of an old inhabitants of the world and their tales as well as try to uncover and read as much as items descriptions and lore as possible which can come very handy many times throughout the game. it’s a thought-provoking experience that may challenge your wits and imagination as much as the game itself will challenge your skills and reflexes!

As for the players story, that is a whole different thing. Being an RPG game at its roots, Bloodborne lets you write your heroes story from scratch as you see fit. There is nothing that is predetermined about the way you character will develop or which path he will take or which choice he will make, you are 100% free to roleplay and interact with the world and its inhabitants as you see fit. Speaking of Interaction there are inhabitant’s are still “alive”, people you can speak with, who will offer insight into the game world and lore and often task you with optional side quests and reward you upon completing these and the only way to get to them and complete those tasks is through careful examination and curious effort an I liked it that way. Interactive non-playable characters are present, yeah, but for the most time, Bloodborne is isolating solitary experience even thou there are some subtle cooperative elements present and because of the way the chose to incorporate it in the game, it only makes it feel even more desolate and lonely. Running up to ghostly shades depicting other players who are also in the area and reading scribbled messages left by other players who came before you and even witnessing their final moments all add up to your own experience and story and also provide insight into every potential danger that might lurk just around the corner.

So to sum it all up in a TL:DR fashion

Bloodborne is amazing. ITs frightening and challenging experience. It’s a game that doesn’t hold your hand and that is not afraid to challenge every aspect of your skill as a player and reward you generously if you succeed. Its a journey through dark and unforgiving but beautifully crafted and well designed world. It’s fun and feels great to play but perhaps, the most important thing is that it’s a decent addition to From Softwares “Souls” inspired game and a very good game for From Softwares loyal fan base!

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Top 5 Android Games To Pass The Time

A little bit off topic but, today, I am going to take a look and list some of the most enjoyable passtimes I ever had the pleasure to try out. All of us have those moments where we just have to wait for something, whether it’s public transport or waiting in a line to get somewhere, it doesn’t matter, what does matter however is that these things are a life saver for those situations. Im talking ofcourse about games for mobile phones. So today, I give you 5 of my best ever games for handheld devices.

5. Hitman GO

This little Hitman ispired game puts out beloved Agent 47 into a completely new setting. Instead of a classic 3rd peson stealth game of cat and mouse, you are going to be challenged with a series of mind games in form of a turn based strategy with very familiar themse from the Hitman games. Great game for every gamer who likes tactics and outsmarting his competitors. It’s also good to know that the game is released by Square Enix themselves so, expect quality.

4. Crazy Taxi

Now Im sure some older readers will immediately remember the super popular Dreamcast game with the same name and for a good reason. Anyone who played the original Crazy Taxi is bound to remember it’s crazy and super fun ridicoulesnes. Get in your taxi, get your customer and get them to a destination by any means possible! Oh, and by “any means” I do mean ANY means. Check out this great and crazy driving game, im sure you will like it.

3. Vainglory

Now this is not exactly a game u play for 5 minutes while waiting in a line as I have said above but I have to list this marvelous MOBA achievement here for a couple of reasons. First off, its great game and even more important, great MOBA game for handheld devices! The two finger imput is simply done right, there are no flaws, it’s intuitive and executed perfectly. Game is balanced and ahs a nice learning curve allowing fresh players to hop in and learn on the go while simultainiously allowng for deep, thought through and strategized matches t obe had. You absolutely have to give this marvel of a handheld MOBA experience a go if you like the genre and still, even if you don’t, you should give it a try. *Theres a very useful tool that will let you get most of your game with this free to use Vainglory Ice cheat.

2. Fruit Ninja

I don’t care if it’s old. I don’t care if you all had enough of it, the truth is Fruit Ninja is as popular as it is for a reason. Theres no real strategy to it, there’s not really anything to learn, simply turn it on and swipe your finger across some fruits to get that satisfying feeling of fruit juices splattering on your screen while your score rises and rises with each sucessfull cut! it’s arguably the best casual game on the market and a perfect pass time for all those daily “in-between chores” situations.

1. Super Hexagon

Ok, first let me say this: If you are easy to anger and get frustrated, then this game is probably not for you and you should stick with the Fruit Ninja. For these of you who like the challenge and super fast paced gameplay, I urge you all to check Super Hexagon. Its a marvelous achievement of casual yet, hardcore, gaming is the most perfect game to play daily while waiting for something to happen but, keep in mind that you will sometimes keep playing it even for 30 minutes or more despite the fact that you probably wont last a single run more than a couple of seconds. Its and amazing game that only asks you to steer the little triangle thingie left and right and evade incoming “walls” of strangely geometrical shapes. Sounds easy enough? Well, think again my friends

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Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

So recently I’ve got the chance to play one of the games that I kinda got and forgot about. Despite many encouragements to play it, it somehow ended up being one of those games that you just keep leaving for “another time” which apparently never comes… untill two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I found myself in that familiar situation where I simply had “nothing to play” once again besides my steam library being filled with over 500 titles of which I haven’t played like half, and other half I finished multiple times and one particular game got my eye. It was “Enslaved: Odyssey to the West” (and it was Premium Edition, yay!)

Let me tell you right away, if you are like me, having this game lying around, waiting to be played ever since some sale a couple of years ago where you got it for under 5€ or if you are simply not playing it for any other reason, do yourself a favor and find a reason to play it because this game is awesome and I can’t believe I haven’t played it until now.

*Minor spoilers ahead

In Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, you play as Monkey (no, not an actual monkey), a muscular and agile post-apocalyptic world wanderer who gets abducted by mysterious robotic slavers at the very beginning of the game but he manages to escape his cage thanks to some mysterious girl’s, with some obvious technical aptitude, tempering with the slaver’s ship computer causing a system failure of a kind and thus setting our hero free. A very fortunate turn of events, though, you are still aboard the ship. A flying ship. A flying ship that is about to crash because of the same failure that just set him free. Needles to say, you are out of the cage and into a frying pan and you have to figure a way out of the rapidly descending sky-ship. So eventually,thanks to monkeys superb agility and climbing skills(his name is truly fitting) you manage to, kinda, find a way to escape the ship and find yourself in company of a lovely Trip for whom you act as guardian and an escort from that point.

Without reveling anymore of the actually game plot, I will say only that the story itself is a nice and a well thought one, being based on the Chinese 16th century novel “Journey to the West” which also served as an inspiration for many more stories including the Dragonball saga. The story is likely to keep you interested and make you care for the actors and while not actually the focal point, it definitely is a strong one in this game.

Source: Wikia

The game is a action adventure type, typical to those older Playstation one and two titles (like Legacy of Kain or less know Primal) where the gameplay mixes a little bit of action with the adventure and platforming aspects and adds a puzzle and a boss fight that challenges both your fighting and creativity skills. It will often throw you into a tense situation where you will have to fight and sneak your way through an area while destroying or avoiding combat(it’s usually up to the player to decide) and make sure that Trip makes it through it as well, unharmed. While you will control Monkey, you will still be able to order Trip and tell her what she should to so you can make it through as safe as possible. To avoid combat, which is usually the best way to deal with any given situation(especially in the early game on harder difficulty settings), you will have to use one of Trips trinkets like distraction which will make all the enemies focus solely on it and completely ignore anything else that might be happening around them, and/or rely on Monkeys climbing and sneaking skills to find the safest and least guarded route through the dangerous area.

Also, when not fighting or sneaking, Monkey will be challenged by numerous platforming gameplay aspects combined with puzzle elements that will challenge your reflexes and space coordination, making a nice change of gameplay every now and then and keeping it as fresh and possible by balancing these narrative platforming aspects which allow you to usually get up to high places and just look and admire this beautifully thought, designed and crafted game world. Now you must be thinking: “Wait <ime autora>, isn’t this a game with post apocalyptic setting?”, and the answer is yes, it is, however, this apocalypse is far from(in my honest opinion, overused) nuclear holocaust apocalypse theme or(even more overused, and its a fact this time) zombie apocalypse theme. This time, we have a beautiful apocalypse themed game that will most likely leave some of you almost wishing for it to happen!

As you can see, this game’s world design is very beautiful and pretty unique for a game with post apocalypse in its description and you will no doubt find yourself many times just standing there and looking around, finding that perfect angle for “just one more” screenshot, just as I did, more times than I can remember, honestly. From once crowded streets and dense building blocks now overgrown with beautiful, lush vegetation, to decaying bridge with remnants of old maritime constructs, every area is a story for itself and comes with its own beauty that’s not hard to recognize and appreciate even if you are not really interested in the artistic aspects of video games.

 

Now its pretty clear, from this short review that Enslaved: Odyssey to the West has a little bit of something for many gamers cravings and, I would personally recommend it and give a green light to everyone thinking about playing this game who is into action adventure games or is simply looking for a memorable story to play through. Go for it, it is highly unlikely that you will be anything but amazed and very happy about what this game has to offer. Happy gaming

 

Gameplay Walkthrough

 

 

System Requirements

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