Showing posts with label NetherRealm Studios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NetherRealm Studios. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

INJUSTICE 2 (VERDICT)

Going from concerned to content I find myself greatly enjoying Netherrealm Studio's latest superhero fighting game spin-off. Everything from the story, to the online feels fair enough even though it isn't perfect, yet. There's plenty of rewarding offline content to enjoy each day, and plenty of fun to be had in the online competitive scene as well. Dare I say it, Injustice 2's online feels like a much smoother, and vastly more enjoyable experience than it's predecessor. As far as presentation goes the game itself is gorgeously rendered even on the standard PS4 console. Characters look much more appealing as do the stages, and the many special effects. Speaking of which the story was so cinematic in nature it could have easily been it's own animated film. It is that good. I liked the fact that in the story mode playthrough the player was never once subjected to mini-games. This made the story being told more cohesive, and worthy of the gamers' undivided attention. When it comes down to the details everything that Injustice 2 offered was leaps, and bounds ahead of the first game's content. It's nice to see a developer take fan feedback, and put it into production. I've even noticed that Ed Boon, and his team has tweaked boss fights so that they aren't too terribly oppressive which I'm personally thankful for. As of now Injustice 2 is my current favorite fighter, and I have already willingly sunk many hours into learning my favorite characters, completing the story, and grinding for loot. It's an experience I can easily recommend to any fighting game fan who's looking for that next worthy fighter.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

INJUSTICE 2 ~ Day One Impressions

This following impressions article is going to take in account only part of the "INJUSTICE 2" experience as I've yet to spend enough time with all of the features to give any definitive rating, or assessment. I will however go over my thoughts on the new mechanics, the application of the base mechanics, the functionality of the controller in-game as well as my thoughts about the online. I'll even, on a spoiler free level, go over my thoughts of the story ...

Friday, May 1, 2015

MKX Kontinues To Be Krap

It has been about two weeks since the launch of MKX, and for me the BS just keeps piling up. I'd say at this point we are about knee deep in the "Krap". I've invested hours, and days worth of gameplay time into the game hoping to hell that it would improve, but even with the behind-the-scenes patches being issued it remains the same broken mess that it was since day one. Of course I have discovered new problems, some of which are quite "Koncerning". Among them is the fact that mobile device gamers using the MKX game app can fight online against players on the consoles. I don't know what the hell Netherrealm was thinking making it cross play like that, because obviously playing on a tablet, or mobile device, and playing with a controller on a console are two very different experiences. I'm willing to bet (not really) that the mobile app users can pull things off more easily than someone using an actual controller ...

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Let's Talk - "Mortal Kombat X"

I had a lot of hopes riding on the release of 'Mortal Kombat X'. I hoped that it's new character variation system would be a blessing to the fighting game genre, and I hoped that it would revive my faith in the gaming genre that I grew up loving. Unfortunately as I poured hours of time into back to back playthroughs experiencing all that the game had to offer it became evident that MKX was to be another casualty in the growing trend of development half-assery. Everything from the story, to the actual kombat in the offline, and online scenarios suffered a fate worse than death. It was obvious that despite the effort put forth to push the graphics, and to make the variation system work that the game was lacking in so many ways. The roster, for one was so unbalanced with characters doing different amounts of damage per attacks, and throws that it made for a less than fair fight. That coupled with the button input delays in both the offline, and online environments only acted to add salt to the growing wound.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mortal Kombat X - "Koncerns"

Me, and Mortal Kombat go way back, and I do mean WAY back. As an underage child I initially played the first game of Mortal Kombat in it's arcade cabinet form at Lakeshore Mall with friends when I could. This period of time in which I could do this was definitely the height of my fighting game career as it was the only time arcades really existed in the local area, and was the only time I got to experience fighting games in their natural form. It wasn't until much later that the home console version was released, and that I was able to sneak a copy of the Sega Genesis version home to play when my parents were unaware. From those two early pre-teen experiences my interest in the series peaked, and as I grew older (a good bit older) I made it a point to purchase every MK game that was launched thereafter, because of said experiences. Of course it goes without saying that some MK games were better than others as you more than likely know.

What you have to understand in regards to my later, more in-depth encounters with the Mortal Kombat series is that I grew up in a very strict christian home, and violent games of any sort were not permitted. In fact it wasn't until my 13th birthday that I was allowed to get my first fighter, "Street Fighter II: Championship Ed.", and that was only because I convinced my Mum that it had no blood or gore. I loved the ever loving hell out of that game, but that is a different story for a different time. As far as my history with MK goes it came to fruition more so in my late teen years when my parents let loose of their religious grip. It was a huge step in me being able to experience the video game industry's more mature offerings. You could say that Mortal Kombat paved the way for my video game freedom, and even opened up many more mature entertainment related adventures for myself ... Horror movies, and porn included!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Let's Talk - "INJUSTICE & INJUSTICE Ultimate Ed."

From it's hyped beginning to it's current state "Injustice: Gods Among Us" has attracted a lot of attention. Some of that attention was good, and some bad. I'll be the first to admit I was psyched about it's initial release. Not only did I go out, and buy the Xbox 360 version of the game, and a season pass, but I also did the same for the PS3 version of the game. After getting into it for a while though I began to notice some rather bothersome things happening to the offline, and online offerings contained within. Things like missing DLC characters, and encounters with lagswitchers/hackers became a commonplace event. The truly sad thing about all this is that the game contiues to go down it's downward spiral with no signs of getting better. The online multiplayer is rubbish, and new glitches/bugs are still happening. It seems that Netherrealm Studios would have had their sh*t together by now, but that is most definitely not the case.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Online Injustice, Martian Manhunter & A Steaming Pile of ...

Like many enthusiasts in the world gaming journalists, and gamers themselves are often times compelled to voice their opinions about certain things that concern the subjects that they are most passionate about. I find that this moment in time I'm at that particular boiling point when I too have to get something off of my chest. This "issue", as I'm going to call it pertains to Netherrealm Studio's own unique brand of bullsh*t. Anyone who has been playing "Injustice: Gods Among Us" online these days will admit (assuming they are not doing it themselves) that the online lobbies are filled with lagswitchers, hackers, and cheap ass gamers. The game is broken as hell, and the guys over at Netherrealm Studios seem to be doing diddly squat about it. Sure Microsoft deals with most of the online BS (supposedly), but damned if I don't keep running into the same jackasses I report over, and over again. Something's not right here folks. Someone, somewhere is not doing their damn job.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Injustice Lobo & Season Pass Farce

Okay. Prepare yourselves for some insane profanity pertaining to NetherRealm Studio's DLC fiasco. If Lobo were in my place I think he'd agree with what I'm about to say ...

This morning I woke up excited that Lobo, my favorite DC character of all time was going to be released as a new addition to Injustice's pathetic roster of spam fuckers. I loaded the disc in the Xbox 360 with anticipation of the justified havoc I was going to wreak upon unsuspecting online turds. When I arrived at the XBL add-on menu I noticed that there were some new skins available, and thought to myself, "Damn! This day could not get any better!". Since I bought the season pass I figured they'd include the skins like they did with MK9's season pass, but HELL NO!. Of course I'm jumping ahead of myself in mentioning that, so back to the Lobo discussion. I downloaded Lobo via the in-game menu, thinking that I may be charged for the DLC content if I didn't do it that way. Oddly enough I noticed during my downloading of Lobo that the skins were still listed for 240 msp each. I'm thinking "WTF!?". I then go about my merry fucking business continuing to watch Lobo download onto my console with the thought of "NetherRealm Studios just reamed me a new one, didn't they?" in the back of my mind.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Injustice: Gods Among Us - "Lowdown on the Showdown"

There's no doubt that a lot of us had high expectations for NetherRealm's latest fighting game, "Injustice: Gods Among Us". In fact I had so much confidence in the game I pre-ordered it, and even bought the season pass. Upon picking it up, and getting into it though my optimistic opinions of the game began to slowly diminish over time. The more I played it the more I found wrong with it. Whether, or not you are a fan of this game I think we can all agree on the fact that the game is in need of some serious patching. Certain characters need to be nerfed/buffed, and other online interactions need to be dealt with if the game is to succeed for the long run. Before I get too far ahead of myself though let me touch base on what this game offers the gamer.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Let's Talk: "Fair & Unfair In the World of Gaming"

I'm going to give it to you straight folks. I'm sick, and f*cking tired of gamers who chose to cheapen the online gaming experiences with hacking, cheating, spamming, and lagswitching. It has become a growing epidemic, because of the gaming community, and developer's acceptance of the issue. Recently some friends of mine tried their best to justify the situation as well. It is this mentality that allows the scum of the online Earth to do as they please. You may say "Well Brad, there are ways around it", or "Try different tactics", or even my all time favorite "Your internet connection must suck". Well friends, I'm here to tell you different. While there may be ways around the usual fighting game bullsh*ttery why the f*ck should I have to go out of my way to do so. I think that sort of thinking is ass backwards. Game developers should be applying features to games to counter act the BS. For example the roster of Injustice is filled with the most unbalanced set of characters that I've ever experienced in a fighting game. Most characters are heavy keep away types that make it easy for online losers to have there way with the best of players. Sinestro, and Deathstroke are a prime examples of this. It goes without saying that while some techniques in a fighting games are made available it doesn't necessarily mean it's alright, or justifiable to use them.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Freddy Krueger: "MK9's Worst Nightmare"

Just when I thought the online gameplay in Mortal Kombat (MK9) couldn't get any worse, the developers of the game added 'Freddy Krueger' into the fray. Normally most players would welcome this hellish denizen of dreams to the roster of blood thirsty MK9 kombatants, but in this case NetherRealm Studios really screwed things up. Freddy invades the game with super cheesy spamming combos that can be executed at long range, and close range. It may just be my imagination, but he also seems to be a lot quicker than the rest of the MK9 characters?

Friday, August 5, 2011

Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360): "Out of the SSFIV Frying Pan & Into the Fire"

Most of you that follow me on Twitter, or Youtube know that I have major issues with fighting game spammers, and online gaming tomfoolery (foolishness ^.^). When I pay $64 for a game I expect the online mode to be enjoyable. Mortal Kombat totally fails in this area. The main reason I got Mortal Kombat was for the online mode. I had recently owned it for the PS3, but never actually got to play online due to the Sony hacking incident.  I figured that since the game was getting so much good hype that it would be worth buying again. I was definitely anxious to try the online since I had missed out earlier.