Category: Games

I have reviewed most of the episodes of Batman: The Telltale Series individually at this point, and for the most part they have all been successful.  Of course my worry was that they would stumble with the fifth and final episode.  They did not.  Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 5 “City of Light” wraps everything together wonderfully.

My only complaint would be that it is too action heavy, and by action I mean quick time event heavy.  Granted this ups the tension quite a bit, but these games are all about decisions, and due to this being the final episode there aren’t many major decisions left.  Just the results.  Really they just should have combined Episode 4 with Episode 5.  Oh well.  It is still really good, and I am just pointing out its minor flaws.

Now that the season is wrapped up the price on the whole season should be dropping rapidly, and if you have not bought Batman: The Telltale Series you really should.  If nothing else for comic book fans it lets you play as Bruce Wayne instead of Batman, and that is a treat in and of itself.  The series ends with a setup for Season 2, and trust me I will be playing.  Though I hope I get a Wolf Among Us Season 2 as well.   Honestly just give me a DC Telltale Series channel and it will be all I play and watch.

I have had a chance to play Titanfall’s 2′ multiplayer, and for the most part I like it.  The shooting mechanics are great, the maps are well laid out, and the Titans are cool, but it still feels like a step back from the first Titanfall.  With Titanfall 2’s maps’ focus on lanes and paths it lacks that unique danger from everywhere hook that kept the original Titanfall so engaging, and I don’t feel unstoppable in my Titan anymore.  It is not bad per say, just different, and for me it is not a change I am enjoying as much.

I will still probably play it on and off.  Like I said the shooting is top notch, and there is still nothing more fun than dropping Titans from the sky, but I just don’t feel the need to play it like I used to with Titanfall 1.  Maybe if my friends were playing it I would feel differently, but as of now it is just a good game to waste time with once and a while.  Thankfully the DLC is all going to be free and the single-player is amazing, so I think it is still worth picking up.

I cannot wait until Spring to play this game.  It looks amazing.  I just hope that BioWare learned its lessons from the fan fallout from Mass Effect 3.  The only thing that concerns me are the rumors that the multiplayer will be hooked in to the main story.  I want to be able to play this game by myself.

After the lackluster multiplayer test for Titanfall 2, I was going to hold off getting Titanfall 2 until it was cheap.  Luckily for me (unluckily for Respawn Entertainment) they launched Titanfall 2 within a week of the most anticipated Battlefield game in quite some time, so the prices dropped quickly.  I have not had a chance to play the multiplayer yet, but I have completed the single player campaign, and it is incredible.

The story is has a run a of the mill, young recruit being forced in to heavy action and turning out to be the greatest soldier that ever lived, thread, but what makes the story special is the interaction between Rifleman Jack Cooper and his Titan, BT-7274.  They play off each other so well, and even better they let you pick Cooper’s dialog.  You press up or down deciding how snarky you want to be, so it is not a complex dialog tree, but it does engage you just a little bit more in their tale.

While the story is nice, you play first person shooters for their action, and this is where Titanfall 2 truly shines.  The shooting mechanics are flawless.  The free-running allows you to come up with creative ways to take out the bad guys, and then when you are in BT, you feel completely unstoppable.  Even when you are not shooting, the free-running puzzles are a ton of fun, and the collectable ‘pilot helmets’ are always challenging to find and get, but not overly so.  Also almost of all the of the achievements are for the single player and easy to obtain, so it should help out your Gamerscore.

The only downside to the single player that I have found is that the graphics, while detailed, are not up to the standards set by other games, and worse you can tell the resolution is low and being up-scaled because everything is a little fuzzy.  Thankfully when you are running and gunning as fast as you can you don’t notice these issues all that often, but you do notice them.

Considering you can find this game for $30 or lower these days, Titanfall 2 is worth the price of admission for the single player alone.  I am sure there is some fun to be had with the multiplayer as well, but that is just gravy on top of all the fun I had with the campaign.  This has been a good Holiday season for video games, but a disaster for my wallet.  Though I have been having too much fun to care that I am broke.