Star Wars Battlefront II...Again

Star Wars Battlefront II's first trailer was released last week--officially and unofficially, given the leak a few days before the reveal. The story-heavy trailer showed off that you'll be playing as an Empire-splinter group that bands together to keep fighting the good--erm, bad fight after the Death Star gets blown up. Again.

I know EA and Dice's original Battlefront reboot was divisive. I love the game, but I agree that it needed more content. I wasn't too concerned about the game's lack of a single-player story considering that I rarely played the original Pandemic-developed Battlefront games solo anyway.

The reboot needed more maps and locations. It needed easier access to hero characters. It needed more heroes. The Season Pass fixed a lot of these issues, but paying a total of $110(!) for a single game feels gross.

Despite it's flaws, I loved Battlefront and I'm super excited for Battlefront II. The inclusion of every era of Star Wars history is great. With a class-based system for multiplayer and the elimination of vehicle pick-ups in favor of vehicle access being similar to another popular DICE online-focused first-person shooter, Battlefront II seems to be headed in the right direction.

A cool story mode about a time we don't know much about just it makes it even better.

The second attempt at a fusion of Battlefield and Star Wars could be a beautiful thing.

Basically Banjo-Three-ie

The collectathon genre says hello again with the release of Yooka-Laylee.

It's set in a completely unique world filled with completely unique characters who are unlike anyone from any game you have ever seen before.

Obviously I'm joking when I'm talking about the uniqueness, as the game is basically a Banjo-Kazooie clone. That is what the developers promised, after all. Oh, and a 3-D Shovel Knight is there, which is DOPE.

The game takes me back to my childhood where the only two games I would play on my Nintendo 64 were Banjo-Tooie and Kirby and the Crystal Shards. I always got lost playing Banjo because I couldn't remember (see: didn't care enough as a youth) to go to each objective I was told about.

Now that I'm older and closer to death, the finality of how few games I'll actually have time to finish has hit me, and I'm determined to finish this game before I die. Well, that and I find the game incredibly fun and addicting.

I'm also much wiser than I was when I originally played Banjo games, so I won't get lost. I'll just get distracted by every shiny object I find.

If you like collecting things and/or love Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie, you will like this game. If you never liked those games, then there's not much here to win you over.

Destined for Sequels

So there was a Destiny 2 pre-order sales pitch reveal last week. You probably saw it. It had a funny Cayde-6 rallying other Guardians while Zavala did the same, just in a more serious manner. Yeah, I thought the Cayde-6 monologue was amusing, but as famous fictional scientist Dr. Alan Grant said in Jurassic Park III, "No force on earth or heaven could get me on that island." The island being Destiny 2 in this case.

And yes, I'm fully aware that Dr. Grant ends up going to that island, but he was promised a lot of money. If someone paid me to play Destiny 2, I'd be down.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Destiny. I bought it three times and played all of the expansions. However every time I finished up an expansion, I left feeling robbed. Destiny (and presumably) Destiny 2 is all about the grind. It's got more grinding than a Tony Hawk Pro Skater game or an awkward high school dance.

Destiny never really got it's hooks into me like it did for so many others, and that's fine. But there is a pretty big divide between those who love Destiny and those who hate Destiny. It seems like a game everyone loves or hates; there is no middle ground.

Destiny 2 will probably double down on everything the original Destiny was about, which again, is great for its fans, but probably won't do much to win over new players. Over the life of Destiny, almost none of my concerns (and the concerns of many, many others) were addressed. Bungie seemed to cater to those who loved it already--which is a huge number of people--without addressing some key concerns.

The reveal obviously won't tell us too much, if anything, but before I consider playing Destiny 2, I'd need to know a lot of information.Will the game become more streamlined instead of hiding interesting lore and ways to get new loot behind a lame second-screen experience like the Destiny app? Will the enemy variety be better? Will there be an interesting story?

The game box lists its "Cinematic Story Campaign" on the back of the box as a selling point. I've yet to see that "Cinematic Story Campaign." I don't believe it's there. Maybe it's hidden somewhere in the Grimoire cards.

The biggest thing I took away from the reveal? The different editions the game will launch and the different pre-order incentives. Hopefully the game lives up to everything Destiny's hardcore fans want it to be.