Tag: Review

Final Fantasy XV. The greatest game?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Final Fantasy XV is the latest (we are not counting the remake) and biggest Final Fantasy game. It’s developed and published by Square Enix. Now straight up, we at X35 Earthwalker definitely like this game. We had a great time for sure. There’s a lot going on in this game so we will cover all the important stuff (yes there are spoilers but is it really a spoiler at this point as the game has been out for like 4 years now). So check this out.

First things first. The story. We enjoyed the story. It’s one of those stories where if you don’t pay attention you won’t understand the crucial parts. The main parts are obvious though. You control Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum. Son of king Regis Lucis Caelum. The king sends his son and his friends: Ignis, Gladiolus and Prompto of a missions. Basically Noctis is off to go get married to his fiancé Lady Lunafreya. The wedding is also a political move too but whatever. As you are in Galdin Quay you learn that your home town got attacked by the empire during a peace treaty signing. Your hometown, Insomnia, got destroyed, many people died, including Gladiolus and your Father are dead. You can’t reach home, nor do you have the power to take back the city. You continue to Altissia to find your fiancé and encounter the ‘Six’.  Who are the Six? It’s a prophecy concerning the chosen king and how the Six, who are gods, the give Noctis power. It’s basically about getting lots of power destined for the king. There’s the ring of Lucis, the crystal, which the Lucis monarchy have guarded for numerous years, power from the six and the royal arms. We won’t explain everything. Just get the power and get to Altissia. 

It’s a big journey. You even need to get and repair a boat to travel the sea and reach the island.The story does make sense and it’s easy to understand except for the ending which is sort of cryptic. Unless there’s content that explains what happens or a sequel is coming, games should let the players know what’s happening. Did Noctis really die, if so, him marrying Lunafreya was that in heaven, another realm, his wish granted as the chosen king to be with his fiancé or what? The dossier doesn’t explain and neither is there additional information. It’s not good to leave your players who are paying attention with giant question marks, especially when we worked hard to beat the game and more. This is a small negative though. 

Concerning the  Final Fantasy XV characters, we like them. Especially the four main characters who we follow around. Seeing how the four interact with each other was excellent. Noctis is the prince who everyone must protect and care for but he isn’t the most mature guy around and clearly has an attitude problem. Ignis is the greatest of all time and our favourite. He is the cook, the driver, the advisor and has the most wisdom. He is also the most educated and has an amazing accent and way of talking. Gladiolus is the big strong guy, focused and super stern and militant in some ways. He’s the big brother of the group. Prompto is the joker, the best friend of Noctis and most cheerful member, bringing the laughs and keeping spirits high. They joke with each other, pick on each other, make fun of each other like Ignis’s hair in the wild wind, or Noctis having a scrawny body and no muscle according to Gladiolus. They act like actual best friends and like best friends they even have arguments which we will get into later.  You will end up caring about the four and their safety. There was a hint in the game where Ignis got hurt and he lost his sight. This actually hit X35 Earthwalker personally as he cared for Ignis. That’s what this game does to you. You care and possible relate to this characters based on their traits. 

The Final Fantasy XV world is huge and definitely beautiful and amazing. There is firstly the cinematic scenes which are beautifully done and the details are top level. The desert area is dusty, mountains in the distance, the sand stormy areas do effect vision to some extent, there is a deep pit of water and the whole area literally looks like a good wild wilderness area. The next area is a very green, water pit area with literally large lakes, giant fossilised bones , bushes, lakes for fishing and more. Expect rain too. There’s even a simp like area and a mountainous place where rough wyvern enemies dwell. Multiple cities and towns for you to visit as well. All looks good. The roads, the world, as you travel, the graphics, character design is all very good. From time to time and especially when we entered a new area, we would stop and look around at the environment and area to see the design and the hard work that went into it.

Now a large game and world like Final Fantasy XV needs ways to traverse it right. There are cities, a coast, forests, sandy desert areas and more with numerous side quests all around. Well Final Fantasy XV has provided such means.  Off course you can just hoof it and walk and sprint to where you need to go.Better though is that you can get access to Chocobos, which are the famous loveable giant chicken birds that you can ride. Chocobos can even do sprints which under the right conditions can bring some real speed. Next is the Regalia, which is the royal car. So actual horsepower right here. The regalia also has some options. For example, you can have Ignis drive you, drive yourself or even use fast travel. Now this is good game design. You have on foot, chocobos, car and a fast travel. Also when you turn the Regalia into the type D which becomes a serious off road monster truck like vehicle that can even jump. Yes… a jumping car. Final Fantasy XV has multiple options and ways for you to travel and get around. You can literally set a route for Ignis to drive and he will automatically drive the car there while the player can put down the control and quickly go do something else. Does come in handy.

Final Fantasy XV rewards players who like to explore. As you travel by car, chocobo or foot you will come across treasure, items, ingredients and more. You may even discover a dungeon containing a mighty beast to face. You can come across fishing spots too. Now the fishing is whole new game in itself. You need to put together your fishing rod and even decide what bait to use. Some bait will only attract certain fish, few have special effects etc. You throw in your bait and see what is paying attention to it. Then you need to reel in your bait at different speeds to attract the fish to it as some prefer fast moving bait while others prefer slow moving bait. Then when they catch, you see what fish it is allowing you to decide if you want to try and catch it or not. You have a brief moment to decide though. Then when you actually try to catch it, it’s a battle. The fish will move right and then left, back and forth to try and make things hard for you. You must tilt the control stick in the same direction it is moving to prevent your fishing line from taking damage. You must wait for the right moments to start reeling in the fish which reduces it’s stamina. Once their stamina reduces to nothing, you win. Fishing isn’t simple and it can actually be real hard to get the biggest strongest fish which also requite Noctis to have a higher fishing level, which increases as you fish. We have caught the Vesper Gar (we hate that thing) and something bigger. 

Probably our favourite thing at the end of each in game day is the camping. Final Fantasy XV does have a day night cycle. It gets real dark so you make your way to a camp site. Gladiolus puts up the tent, prompto helps set up and keeps the chatter going. Ignis, the main man, stands by the grill and thinks about what meal to cook. You select the meal and Ignis with the click of his fingers gets straight to work. The way he does it is art. Then you see the meal made and presented in a bowl, plate or whatever is appropriate. Then you see all four characters actually eating the meal you selected and having a good chat. The developers went and did all this work. For example if you choose a meal that’s skewers then you see them holding the skewers and taking bites. If cup noodles then you see them with the cup and getting those noodles down them. Also the details on the food is very good too. Some meals makes us want to eat it too. We also liked the idea that you get buffs from your meals. Some meals increase your max health, attack, magic, spirit or a combination temporarily. Some meals increase the amount experience points you get, others make your tech meter fill up faster. So get tactical and decide what  you need… when it comes to food.

The combat in Final Fantasy XV is simple on one side but also deep on the other side. Let us explain. Sure al you have to do it hold down attack and everything is automated, then hold down block to dodge and survive. At it’s core… that’s it… but there’s more. While attacking, use the control stick to adjust where Noctis attacks and shift around to the back of the enemy. Why? Because striking the back does trigger a blindside which if an ally is near you both do a fancy powerful tag team move that does lots of damage. o always aim for the back. If you successfully block an attack that alerts the player by telling you to block, you can parry right afterwards which if an ally is nearby leads to a tag team strike which again does lots of damage. So fight near your allies. Next jumping and then attacking in the air triggers different kinds of moves, especially with certain javelins. Once unlocked through the ascension with AP points you can even air step, dodge and block in the air while striking from above. You can warp strike into enemies which while warping you are invincible so time your warps and you can avoid lethal attacks while dishing out some damage. Best of all though is that you can  perform link strikes if you have filled up your link gauge (which fills as you attack and defend). You can unlock and then set what link strike you want each ally to have. For example, Prompto can have piercer, Gladiolos can have dawn hammer, and Ignis has enhancement. You choose which you want and they will do it. You are invincible while they are doing the move. If you wait for the prompt at the end of their move you can perform your tag team strike right afterwards for additional damage. It doesn’t end there. You can use the armiger which fills as you fight, then unleash to increase your attack strength and greatly boost speed and mobility. You literally end up dashing around, and striking with great power (this isn’t even your final form). Then you can do a armiger chain where you use your remaining armiger “fuel” and deliver a strong attack with your allies. You can also do a cross chain with your allies where you warp strike into a vulnerable enemy and you all then take turns striking the enemy, increasing the damage with each successful pushed attack button when prompted to, leading up to a final flashy finishing strike, normally kills the enemy. 

Final Fantasy XV also has summons. After you gain the support and help of the gods you can then summon them in combat to help you. They each have conditions though on how to be summoned. This sadly wasn’t explained in the game and we didn’t even know until recently. For example when you get Ramuh’s mark, he can only be summoned when a fight you are in drags on for a long time then you will see the prompt to summon and he will show up. Titan can be summoned when your allies are down or in danger and only in certain places of the world like a bog open place. Leviathan can only be summoned when your allies are in danger and when you are near a good amount of water. We aren’t entirely sure about any of this. This is a big fail of Final Fantasy XV. They didn’t;t make the summons clear or how to do it. We get shown Ramuh’s summon because it’s part of the story only. While playing we saw Ramuh once and that’s it. We then kept seeing a bird goddess thing because we  unlocked her through completing a cool special event story. We never saw any other summon. 

Last of all Final Fantasy XV has the greatest battle scene of all video gaming time. When we first saw the Leviathan show up and take us on, we were amazed. We knew we can’t beat that thing. It’s too big and has the advantage of going in the water. When we the got our kingly powers unlocked and could fly, launch powerful explosive attacks, dash and practically teleport and strike with immense force we knew it was a serious battle. Combine this battle and the weather, the environment and the epic music. It was a battle that you will never forget. literally no other game gave us an exciting moment like this. Final Fantasy XV has the greatest not just combat but gaming scene in video game history. We were amazed the whole way through. More games need epic moments like this. Sadly there wasn’t anything else like this in the rest of the game even though this game has the room and potential for it.

Final Fantasy XV is also relatable and one of the few games that really brings the emotions at least for us. We will give two examples. When Gladiolus and Noctis had a major disagreement and they almost fought on the train after some exchange of words you understood both sides. Noctis lost his fiancé and was really down about it as anyone would be but the events on the train took place several weeks after that though. In that time he was so focused on that, that he ignored and forgot about his friends, mainly Ignis who lost his sight and was badly wounded while trying to help Noctis. Ignis was blind and it seems like Noctis almost paid no mind. So we understand why Gladiolus was mad and frustrated with Noctis. He was basically being the harsh big brother getting his little brother to get his head straight and be more considerate of others. When we saw Ignis blind, walking slowly and even falling over… it actually hit us sort of hard. We didn’t dear run ahead, we made sure to keep him close by. We cared about Ignis… all of them and you can clearly see how this is a brothers moment. Gladiolus was harsh, heart in the right place and was right but was too harsh and needed to handle things with more gentleness. Noctis had every right to mourn and be sad but that’s no excuse to forget about and show no compassion and concern for others, especially those who will lay down their lives for him like Ignis did. The second example was the camping you had to do before entering the home city of Insomnia. It’s the last camp the four will do together. It, as usual, gives you the choice of what to eat. You then realise that this is literally the last meal the four friends were going to have together. They won’t get this again. No more laughter around the camp fire. All of a sudden you had to think carefully about what you would eat. It was an emotional moment.    

Let’s sum up. Final Fantasy XV failed to explain summons properly and the conditions of the summons concerning the ‘the six’. There also wasn’t enough summons. The camera when you was driving the car (the Regalia) was too close to the car and when you went up steep hills, you couldn’t see anything as the camera was in the car. Your line still taking damage even though you stopped reeling and turning the rod in the direction is stupid. Either make us turn faster or reduce or give a heads up of when the fish turns as some turn to quickly without any warning and showing no time to reel in. Also when the fish jumps up and you get a prompt to press a button, it does little to no effect on the fish’s stamina. The ending needs to be cleared up as after spending lots of hours into the game, you deserve to know exactly what happened and understand it. A bit of cryptic for details is fine but the end result should be clear. AP points needed to come more frequently as we finally got the two link strike abilities which cost 333 and 999 AP points but by that time we were basically near the very end of the game. Took too long to get there and have much more to unlock. Also we hate that the empire’s forces can drop in while you are fighting a bounty creature. Regular travels and enemies are fin but not when you are facing tough monsters as bounty. That was super annoying. We hated that. Enemy targeting in combat wasn’t perfect and was annoying when your character starts shining at an enemy far away instead of the vulnerable enemy on the ground right next to you… but when you fully understand how the targeting works, that happens way less.

What they did well was: excellent top level graphics and wonderful looking cutscenes. Great details on the food which makes you want to eat it too. Good options in traverse the game like the Regalia and chocobos. Epic boss battles including the greatest boss battle and game moment in all of history. Characters are relatable, stand out, unique, got own stories and history and you actually care about them. Lots of relatable lessons and moments in the game like friendship, bonds, trust, loss, betrayal, mystery, laughter, victory, love, pain, depression and more.We loved the camping and it’s mechanics. Final Fantasy XV rewards you for exploring. Lots of customisation for car and characters. Can change gear and abilities even during combat. Has epic summons. Combat is smooth, simple but can get real deep. There’s fun activities too like chocobo racing, fishing (can be challenging though). Loads of side quests with most not be same or simple fetch quests, except Dave and his dog tags which makes sense though as being a hunter is a tough job and many will die. Nice interesting story with some mystery. Even something unusual like a proper political meeting between the king of Lucis and the first secretary of Accordo, Camelia Claustra which requires a different approach. Final Fantasy XV has pictures that Prompto takes which you can decide which ones to save and they can bring back memories or reminders of the journey.You can save anywhere and there is a new game plus with more stuff to do end game so it isn’t ver. The game has the right difficulty. Some moments and enemies are real easy but do side quests and level up and you can fairly face the strong monsters. Cool enemies with variety… we got to fight a flaming griffon bird thing. Now that’s cool. An abundance of items granting powerful effects. There’s even a monster arena where you can place your bets and watch creatures you’ve met and thought on your journey battle each other to the death. Bet on the winning monster and you make a lot. There’s even items you can buy to help your chances of winning in the monster arena. There’s more to say but that covers the basics.

Overall Final Fantasy XV has basically everything. It’s positive way way way way overcomes the few negatives which aren’t even that serious. We truly enjoyed playing the game, taking our time and exploring. We like facing cool monsters and enemies. We will never forget facing Leviathan the Hydraean. When it comes to design, details, variety, hard work put in and share fun… we crown Final Fantasy XV so far as the greatest game we have ever played. We know, that’s a most serious statement to make. Is it our favourite game… no. Is it best game ever made, possibly no because it has way more than Halo 5 because of the type of game that it is. Final Fantasy XV being an open world RPG has room for anything and everything. You can have racing, exploration, underwater levels, huge stories and more because open world RPG are built like that and always require the most time spent in them with numerous side quests and levelling up to do. It’s a true adventure. Halo 5 is a set first person shooter game. You complete each of the levels, shoot some aliens and you end the game. It’s linear and set. Open world RPG like Final Fantasy can have multiple stories within one game and has room for DLC and expansions like it already has. It’s just way bigger and allows for so much more. So it’s the greatest game we have ever played wee have yet to decide if it’s the best game ever made but it’s definitely a strong contender. We had so much fun and would recommend it to anyone. Literally anyone. There is a few puzzle elements, racing, explorations, beautiful moneys and environments and action. It has everything. The developers ‘Square Enix‘ have done an awesome job with this game. Final Fantasy XV deserved way more credit from reviewers and way more attention. We didn’t cover everything but this is good enough. Now Final Fantasy XV may be the greatest game ever made but it’s still worthless when compared to… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Fueled indeed

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is one of those games that many people have been waiting for. Even X35 Earthwalker himself was looking forward to the day when the Crash Team Racing remake would come out. It was described as a smashing blast from the past. If you did play Crash Team Racing in the past then you have to give this a try and see fro yourself… but what did we think? This is a nice review. Let’s take a look. 

Now straight from the start, original Crash Team Racing gamers will notice that the starting screen isn’t the same. In Nitro-Fueled, Crash comes up from off screen to grab the trophy while in the original he was always on screen within reach of the trophy but that’s just a bit of trivia for you (impressed yet?). Now straight from the main menu the game practically reveals all the modes and tracks it has to offer. Crash Team Racing Nitor-Fueled has all the original tracks plus the tracks from Crash Nitro Kart which was a smart move. We know for a fact that there will be no Crash Nitro Kart remake as Crash Team Racing was the more popular and succesful. Still was a great game though. Overall Nitro-Fueled has lots of content for players and the menu makes that clear. 

Let’s start with adventure mode which is the main meat of the game. It’s just as we remembered it. Four tracks per area, win a race and get a trophy then you can’t renter until you get the boss key of the area. Once all four tracks have been won, the boss will emerge and challenge you to a race. The animations for the bosses, their introduction is very well done. We were happy with them, especially Ripper Roo. It just showed how crazy he really is. If you are new to the game then you need to do some practicing on the area track and get some skills. You need to get your head checked if you think you can be a beginner and beat Ripper Roo. Then everything else played out just like the original. The remake was faithful to the original and the animations really added some new flavour and personality to the characters. Now let’s quickly talk about the graphics. The graphics are excellent. We remember the old looks of the levels and seeing the new looks were amazing. The best looking track has to be Coco park. They made that place look awesome like we want to visit that place, as long as there’s no racers nearby hurling bombs and homing missiles. By the way, how comes Coco has a whole major awesome park for herself, with statues of herself and more?

Many players like to jump straight into online modes. You know how these kids are these days, they beat Oxide and suddenly think they are fast. You can do online battle or race in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. The main thing is off course racing as that’s what most did with the original. Battle was fun but it’s very different from what you get in the adventure mode. Online matches are also the best way to earn wumpa coins. Average races and modes in adventure mode only offer from 80-20 coins. That’s lame as the items that actually matter cost a minimum of 1500. Winning an online match can get you 300, sometimes more and sometimes less. That’s a big difference. Even coming second can get you 165. The problem is winning though. If you suck, then you won’t make as much. Also online is where the real matches happen. X35 Earthwalker, the one true Earthwalker, the legendary soldier himself has dominated online. There are some players who are here to just have fun. There are some who want to win and rely more on items. There are those who think they are fast and get real salty and send messages when they lose. Lastly there are those who’ve got some speed. We’ve had some serious races but so far, no one better than X35 Earthwalker. So basically online is where the real action is at. It does take a bit too long to find a match and takes longer to actually start the match. 

The Grand Prix content that recently got added to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled brought in a bunch of new stuff that really reveals where the name nitro fuelled truly comes from. Sort of like a battle pass, players can earn nitro to fit up the meter to unlock rewards like vehicles skins, paint jobs, stickers and even new characters. What we were happy to see is the return of Chick and Stew from Crash Tag Team Racing. They are bringing the reports as never before, except Stew isn’t getting a new funky hat every time the camera comes back to him… what a shame… BRING BACK THE HATS! The gran prix also brings in new tracks never before seen. Whole new race tracks. Now we was going to list this next thing under everything bad about Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled but the Grand Prix saved the game. The Bandicoot girls are back. So happy to see them again. Ami, Megumi, Isabella, Liz and Tawna (Tawna wasn’t in CTR) are all here and ready to race. When we didn’t see them in the original release of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, introducing and applauding the victor of the races we were not happy. We remembered them so clearly and they were a part of the whole thing especially since each girl was assigned to a racing team. A different girl who show depending on the character that wins. Now they are back and geared up. It would have been better if they made it so that either by meeting certain conditions or whatever reason each of the girls who show up one by one challenging the player to a one on one like how Super smash bros Brawl did new unlockable characters. Off course make each of the girls have their own difficult going from easy to extremely hard. Just an idea.    

Now Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is definitely harder than we remember the original being. Definitely watch the above video to see what we mean. The difference between medium and hard difficulty is crazy. When we play medium, the A.I are too easy but when you play hard, the A.I are ridiculous. Remember that the gameplay video above is gameplay of X35 Earthwalker’s first ever races on the game, so was still rusty. Even getting the relics seems to be harder, we could be wrong but that was years ago. Well getting the sapphire and gold isn’t hard… it’s the platinums that all the noobs and beginners can only dream about (don’t get mad guys, just joking) but seriously they seem harder than we remember. Well not all tracks are created equally as some like Tiny arena allow for you to make it in with time to spare while others like N Gins lab has no forgiveness and require near perfect execution of crate smashing. The rematch with Oxide also seems a bit harder than before but once you get in front of him, he’s a complete push over. Fans and critics are divided understandably. Some say that it’s too hrs but that’s mainly coming from those who never played the original before. If you are new, then you really need to practice first. You won’t stand a chance against the real drivers who are online. They will do some bad stuff to you… stuff you can’t even talk about. Seriously we’ve seen players been left far behind the group simply because they are just learning. Online isn’t for learning. Then there are the layers who seem like they’ve been playing the original crash for the last 15 years, training for this remake… off course they say the game isn’t hard. So most the options come from Crash Team Racing history. 

Now let’s talk about what the remake did wrong or was not so good. We noticed that you have less control over your power slides in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. It feels harder to control. We just had to get use to it. We knew the remake wouldn’t be able to fully replicate the exact feeling of the original. The hit detection with walls and surfaces seem worse than in the original. We find ourselves during our first races colliding and being shown down by walls when it looks like we aren’t even touching it. Again this is something annoying but something you have to get use to. Even though they brought them back as race-able characters they still weren’t part of the original release of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled to congratulate the winners. If Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is suppose to be a remake then include everything the original had… simple. They were a part of the game and everyone remembers them. They should have been there. They should have had a cinematic feature where you can rewatch the new cutscenes concerning the bosses as they were great and fun to watch. Beginner characters like Polar, Pura and Liz are discouraged as you get good at the game. Their low speed makes it too hard to compete with excellent racers using high speed characters like Tiny, Dingodile, Ami and Papu Papu. X35 Earthwalker was in an online match and faced a good Papu Papu racer. He was always slightly ahead to due to the difference in character top speed, not skill. In the next race when X35 changed to playing Crash he beat that Papu Papu player without any real problems. The problem is the character speed. The beginner characters are not fast enough. The characters should have no set stats but maybe the vehicles have stats but if they do that, then it’s not an exact remake. So either way beginner characters not valid for good players (that’s why they are called beginner). We don’t see them online (hardly). 

Overall Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a very good game. Well remade and well designed. Besides the stuff we mentioned there isn’t anything wrong with this game. It’s faithful to the original. The characters and levels look very good. We have the option to switch between the new and old music so you can hear both whenever you pretty much want. The inclusion of the Crash Nitro Kart characters and race tracks was a good move too. We at X35 Earthwalker are overall happy with Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. The developers ‘Beenox‘ have done a very good job with this game. Now Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled may be a good remake but what doesn’t need a remake is… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Some Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled gameplay

Challenge of Valor and others. Worth it?

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Anthem Challenge of Valor

Anthem is an action RPG developed by ‘BioWare‘ and published by ‘Electronic Arts‘. Now there is a number of things for endgame players to do like grinding for masterwork and legendary gear and weapons, complete missions to get coins in order to get new emotes and more customisation. You can even aim to beat strong holds on grandmaster 3 difficulty. Anthem also has some challenges for players to complete while they wait for the next big update to the game. Now these challenges take up time and something you can’t really complete quickly at all. You do get something for doing them though. Let’s take a look.

Lancers must prove themselves to be worthy to be called a legionnaire by completing the ‘challenge of Valor’. This challenge requires that players: complete 100 world events in free play mode, Colette 25 contracts, 25 strong hold missions and 25 quickplay missions. This doesn’t sound like much as first but it’s actually quite long when you dive in. Firstly contract, quicklplay and especially strong holds can take very long depending on the difficulty you are playing on. So missions last Lon on Grandmaster 2 and 3. So off course play in an easier level… you could but then you will get gear and rewards that you literally don’t need or want making the mission pointless. You still want a chance to get the stuff you need like legendary gear. Completing world events in freeplay is annoying as you can fly around for quite a while and not see any events take place. Anthem needs to make events spawn more frequently. So completing 100 of those, especially if you never did any before starting the challenge of Valor will take a very long time.

Anthem Challenge of Valor

So if you grind and managed to complete all that then off course you get a reward. We are hearing different things from different players. Some say they got a vinyl for their javelins, others say they got 10 masterwork embers (not gear but embers) and 4000 coins. X35 Earthwalker on the other hand got more stories from the story teller (bard) who loves to talk about the legionnaires like general Tarsis, Midderon, Magna, Ardan Vassa. Which in case you can’t tell SUCKS! Don’t get us wrong, we like the lore in the game and always like to know more but this shouldn’t be a reward for all that hard work and time spent. Now maybe X35 got some embers and a vinyl but we honestly don’t know as we got no notifications, pop ups or anything. In fact we checked out the challenges before and after completion and it displayed no rewards. We are kept in the dark and we are speaking for ourselves here. This disappointed us greatly and think that Bioware needs to do much better concerning this.

In Anthem’s defence you could say that honestly Anthem players who enjoy the game would be doing contracts, strong holds and freeplay anyway even without the challenge so we should just see this as extra bonuses, which is true to some extent. We are playing even without knowing about the challenge but a number of players do not play freeplay mode as it’s so far the worst mode for getting legendary gear from our experience. Like we mentioned, events pop up infrequently and when they do and you complete it, you might just get epic gear as a reward even when playing on grandmaster 2. Not good and not worth it. So everyone does strongholds for the good stuff and it’s where we got the most legendary gear drop from too. Also we haven’t come across a player who did quickplay. All that we know off who do quickplay only does because of the challenge. So no, not all players will be doing this stuff anywhere.

Anthem Challenge of Might

Also 10 masterwork embers is a poor reward too. Not making this up but X35 Earthwalker once harvested a plant or something (don’t exactly remember) and 25 master work embers came out which has never happened to us before. One random harvesting gave us more than the grand prize for completing a challenge which takes many hours to complete. That’s lame! Oh yeah, we didn’t mention that you get one more reward… you unlock the next challenge. The challenge of might… which is another big challenge, that will take many hours to complete as, that requires you to: defeat 2500 Dominion enemies, 2500 Scars, 25000 Outlaws, 1000 elites and 200 legendary units. That’s all. Now this is something you can complete naturally while playing but its still long but we can only wonder what the prize for completing all that is… probably a top hat.

Now this isn’t the first Anthem has done something like this. As we have mentioned in previous blog posts that you had to complete challenges to advance the story. Many players didn’t like that as the challenges also did take up some time. These challenges need to be done correctly. The rewards aren’t encouraging at all. We literally lost all steam for completing these challenges. We checked online and many there players feel the same way. The Anthem developers needs to improve this by adding in rewards that are actually are good and worth it. So overall what we say to the players who haven’t completed the challenge of valor yet is, take your time. Now the rewards for completing the challenge of valor isn’t worth it but there are some god rewards in… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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Celeste is a serious game

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker
Celeste fully completed

Celeste looks cute simple and quite quick but actually that changes quite quickly. Let’s explain. When you start Celeste you see the work put into the music and the details. You start the first area, the prologue and get use to running, jumping and climbing. Once you learn about the dash, experienced gamers just know it’s about to get more complicated.

The first actual level is not even easy. You must learn to control yourself while in the air, time your dashes and interactive with some mechanics that’s exclusive to this level. You learn that Celeste definitely requires precision and timing. Spikes in abundance to punish all mistakes and even a spring trap that launches you into death. You learn the hard way that there’s no mercy in Celeste. Each level has their own mechanic which players have to master. Trust us when we say, learn them now.

In every level players can initially aim for certain things. Off course beat the level, collect all the strawberries, find the blue crystal heart and find the B-side tape. The B side tape is medium difficulty in our opinion, a few are well hidden while most just requires you to look around. Collecting all the strawberries is hard as they are in places that tests the players skill and ability to use your available action in the right order, most of the time. The crystal hearts though are a different story. They are basically tricks. You either know the trick or you’ll never get them. The first one requires you to dash in certain directions in a specific order. You know what direction based on the direction the colour coded birds are moving and you get the order from the machine which keeps flashing the same colours in the same order. Cryptic right? We know!

Celeste Strawberry ending

The game tells you that the strawberries don’t do anything and that’s a lie. We at X35 Earthwalker hate lies! You have youtubers and big review companies agreeing and saying they don’t do anything too. Just shows how inexperienced and not good at paying attention they are. The strawberries actually only have an effect at the end of the game. When you complete it, your character will bake a strawberry cake for certain guests. How much strawberries you collect will effect the selfie that Theo takes and the dialogue. If you hardly collected any, then it will be a plain cake and the guests will look confused, disappointed and even skeptical of whether it still counts as a strawberry cake or not. If you collect all of them then the cake is loaded with strawberries everywhere and everyone looks like they are having the time of their life or completely amazed. They also give some serious compliments. So go get those strawberries.

Once you beat the game, your next challenge is to take on the B side of the levels which you unlock with the B side tapes. Let us warn you now. This is where the fun stops. You thought the reflection and summit levels were hard then you aren’t ready. B side is basically a much harder version of the level you played. More spikes, less mercy and more death. You will fail and die, again and again. Many players have given up because of the B side levels and they are crazy. They force players to get good or git gud. Every trick you have learnt and every combination will be used here. There’s no way around it. The levels are as long as the original but when you see what the game wants you to do to get through it, you just have to say “come on Celeste… This isn’t fair”. Once you figure out what the game wants you to do though, it’s only a matter of time before you execute it right and get it done. These levels aren’t impossible. You need all the crystal hearts and hearts you get for beating B side to challenge the B side of the chapter 8 ‘the core’. What we haven’t seen though is a video of the developers beating these B side levels. We bet they can’t. Now if you beat all the B side levels you can call yourself a Pro level Celeste player.

Congratulations you beat the B side levels. You can rest now… actually you can’t. What? You thought you was done? Nope! Beating all the B side levels and finding all the crystal hearts will allow you to challenge the C side levels. C side are the real deal. They are completely unfair, punishing levels that only the best can beat. They are harder than B side but much shorter than B side. The most is three rooms while there are some with almost only two rooms. Each room requires all the tricks and at times including the new trick you learnt from the B side level of Summit. That’s one thing we hate. Celeste teaches the players a new trick at the end of the game and they then expect you to master it and use it for the rest of the levels and challenges ahead, instantly. C levels are so tough that only 0.64% of all the Celeste players on the Xbox One have beaten them all! The last C side level is brutal but fair and that’s how all the challenges should have been but some felt very chance based especially with some mechanics like the clouds and getting the exact timing. The last level is the longest room in the game with all the mechanics from the previous levels and no check points. You can watch how X35 Earthwalker, the legendary soldier himself took on this level. 

As you complete the different challenges in Celeste, your ticket (your save file) gets different stamps on it. When you beat the game, you get a mountain top flag stamp. When you get all the strawberries you get the strawberry stamp, another thing the strawberries do (the strawberries don’t do anything… liars). When you beat all the B sides you get a heart stamp but when you beta all the C sides you get another heart stamp. Fill your cards up with stamps and feel proud of yourself. Also the last challenge in our opinion is to now get all the Celeste achievements which are reasonable. You can also collect the golden strawberries but after beating C side, you start to get fed up with the game. It’s fun to play from time to time but the difficulty and what you go through makes you want to finally put it down when you are done.

Celeste stamped tickets  

Overall Celeste is very difficult and requires a lot to master. There are unlockables and challenges that most gamers just can’t do. There’s a lot to like about this game. The characters stand out and are very different and weird in their own way. Theo keeps taking selfies. The music is very well done and the story is something that you have to pay attention too otherwise you won’t really get it. Now Celeste may have a special mountain that effects those who climb it but this mountain cannot stand before… the ‘Earth Walk!’ 

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Things Destiny 2 got wrong

Posted on by X35 Earthwalker

We really like Destiny 2. It is a great game and if you read our last gaming blog post on Destiny 2, you will see why. So is it good? Yes off course; however out does have it’s issues. Let’s take a look.

Destiny 2 definitely has a better story but not by much. We mean there is a in game story this time but it wasn’t done very well. We get introduced to a cool new enemy called Ghaul but we don’t get to know much. Sure he explains that he started from the bottom as an outcast and is now a boss but that’s all really. We were hoping for more scenes of Ghaul. Maybe more of his presence and sightings of him in the game. We haven’t finished the story but we believe we are on the last mission though. As it stands right now. It’s just that the guardians get attacked by Ghaul and his army, then Ghaul never does anything, ever again. Which is lame when you think about it. Destiny 2 had opportunities to make many big things happen with this character.

The difficulty of this game is too low. X35 Earthwalker himself went for all the adventures and handled lots of side quests, not grinding or anything but just completing them. When he reached the adventures that recommend that players have at least a light level of 90, he was already well over that level. Matter of fact for some he was already over 200. All the enemies died so easily and nothing phased him. Sure he had low health and at some points but that’s when he dives into the centre of armies and is too busy pimp slapping everyone around. Otherwise it’s never a problem. They should have added difficulties to Destiny 2 giving the players the option as to how hard they want the game too be. As it stands, toooooo easy. Still fun though.

The Strikes need more variety. We feel like there is only 3 or 4 raids in the game. Maybe there’s more but we haven’t seen anymore. With all their money, team and technology we hoped that they would create lots of strikes that have a variety of locations with many different boss enemies. The amount of consumables you get , specifically the tokens on each of the different worlds is too little. Sure you get 3 for finding the region chests but that’s about it. Unless it is a region chest you will always get one. One for completing public events, one for opening chests around, one for beating high profile enemies. Just one. Eventually you will find all the region chests and so getting these items to unlock rewards takes longer than it should do. The worst is the crucible tokens. You only get one per match and Lord Shaxx requires many tokens to unlock the rewards, meaning the game wants you to spend lots of time in matches. Not everyone wants to do that.

The negative point about Destiny 2 that many players have grumbled and complained about is the shaders. More accurately it’s the fact that shaders are now one time use. This is really bad now that we have gotten further in the game. Shaders basically paints your armour pieces and weapons a certain colour design, giving some weird to awesome looking armour. Now there are four armour pieces: head, chest, boots and arms. Plus 1 or 2 more if you count your weapons. Now we used a certain shader on our gun and man does that gun look so amazing now. We wouldn’t sell it to anyone. We used one shader on our arms and that shader looks real cool. We want our whole armour to look like this but we only got 2 left but 3 more armour pieces. The shaders are one time use which is bad because in Destiny 2 most players are dismantling their armour for better gear almost every 10 mins. Destiny now wants us to buy shaders and stuff with real money, as if we didn’t spend enough to get the standard version of the game already.

Overall Destiny is still a good game but it’s just stuff like this which turns Destiny 2 from a excellent game to a great game. This off course isn’t everything but these stuff we point out, are very easy for the developers to correct and improve on but will they do it? So Destiny 2 is still a game worth playing but prepare to encounter some annoying stuff. There is one thing we know that is never annoying… the ‘Earth Walk!’

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