Video Game Review: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Before the pandemic started, I had my buddy that used to work at Electronic Arts (EA) purchase me a copy of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for the PlayStation 4. I then payed him back the $20 for the game and brought it home. My youngest son found the unopened copy of the game and asked if he could borrow it. I was finishing up another game at the time and so I loaned it to him. Naturally he redeemed the code inside for the extra goodies and ended up paying me for the game while he kept it for about a year. He then loaned it to my older son who played it for quite awhile.

With not being able to go to the office to get another copy for myself, I was feeling a bit left out. Then my oldest son let me know the game was on sale at the PlayStation store for about the same price as my friend could get it for me. Naturally I jumped on the store and picked up an electronic copy to download. I just finished playing it and am glad I finally got the chance to run through the game.

Jedi Fallen Order is an open-world adventure game which is a genre I really like to play. It is not nearly as complex as Horizon Zero Dawn or any of the recent Far Cry games. While there are some puzzles to solve and plenty of combat, it doesn't have all of the complex gathering and crafting. You have some echos and collectibles to find but they are minor parts of the story, unlike in other games.

If you are a fan of the Star Wars movies, you will love this game. It takes place just before the original Star Wars movie and has a pretty interesting story line that adds insight into saga. You also get to explore some of the planets in the Star Wars universe. It took me about 70 hours to complete the game and I played it on my PlayStation 5 even though it was created for the PS4.

The game has an ESRB rating of T for Teen due to some mild language and violence. After all, you do run around with a light sabre slicing droids, storm troopers, and creatures in half. I would have no problem letting my grand kids watch while I play this game. The fact that you don't have a complex crafting system also makes it easier for younger audiences should they wish to play.

I found the game to be very enjoyable and recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the Star Wars movies. Towards the end, it did get to be a bit redundant but less so than many other games I have played. There is still a lot I can do should I wish to platinum the game (get every single trophy or achievement) but I also have a lot of other games that I am interested in playing. I paid about $20 for the game and feel you get a lot of entertainment for that price.

Video Game Review: Far Cry 5

I am a big fan of the Far Cry series of games from Ubisoft. I have played Far Cry 3 on the PS3 and really enjoyed Far Cry 4 on the PS4. Last night I finished up Far Cry 5 and so I thought I would write a review.

I enjoyed the other Far Cry games and so I paid full-price for the game. That means I didn't wait for one of my contacts in the video game industry to get me a deal. It is one of the only games I have ever done that with and that should show how excited I was to play the game. Now that I have finished the game, I can say the price is worth it.

As with the other games in the series, there are a number of areas to liberate and each one helps segment the game so you know how much is left to do. Once you have completed all of the main story missions in one area, you have the option of moving on to the next area or continuing to finish all of the side missions. These missions include looking for objects, hunting special animals, and clearing out bad-guy strongholds. The last story mission for each of the areas is a boss battle. In Far Cry 5 there are 3 areas with an additional boss battle at the end.

I enjoyed the game but with so many new games coming out, I opted to finish the game quickly instead of trying to do every single thing. Towards the end, things got a bit repetitive and I stopped enjoying it as much as the other games in the series. If I was to rank all 3 Far Cry games I have played, I would say that 4 is my favorite with 5 being a solid second place and 3 being last. That being said, I enjoyed them all and recommend them to anyone looking for a solid action-adventure game that runs between 30 to 40 hours. Far Cry 5 has a lot of downloadable content (DLC) should you enjoy it and want to spend more time playing.

Far Cry 5 has an ESRB rating of M for mature. There is no nudity in the game and so the rating is due to strong language and violence. There are a lot of torture-death images and some parents might not want their teenagers to see such graphic depictions. I would probably let those 16 or older play it, but you may disagree.

Trophies vs. Achievements

Both PlayStation and Xbox consoles reward you for accomplishing various tasks in video games. On the PlayStation they are called trophies and on the Xbox they are called achievements. While they are similar, there are one or two differences that do exist.

It is no secret that I am a fan of the PlayStation console more than the Xbox. This stems from when my brother used to work at PlayStation and got me a PS2 for my birthday. Therefore I am very familiar with the trophy system. If you are playing Far Cry 4 and rescue 15 hostages, you get the bronze trophy titled "No One Left Behind." Trophies come in 4 levels: bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. They are supposed to be in levels of difficulty. That means that it should be more difficult to earn a gold trophy than a bronze one. Interestingly that is not always the case. I have earned a number of gold trophies much more easily than some of my bronze ones. It is the game developer that sets up the trophies and determines what actions are required for each award.

Achievements operate similarly to trophies with the addition that you are awarded points. The more difficult the task, the more points the achievement is worth. You can earn the same "No One Left Behind" achievement in Far Cry 4 for rescuing 15 hostages. You also get 10 points for your work. With achievements you are not restricted to 4 differing amounts of points. Scrolling through the Far Cry 4 achievements, they can be 10, 15, 20, 50, or 100 points. I'm sure other point values exist as well.

Trophies and achievements can help show how much of the game you have completed. If there are 1250 achievement points for a specific game and you have 1150, you know you only need 100 more points to complete the game or one final achievement.

One big difference with the PlayStation system is that they have a platinum trophy that is awarded once you have achieved all other trophies. Last week I finished earning my last trophy for Far Cry 4 and I can now say that I have "Platinum'd" the game. While some may argue that it is easier to indicate game completion with trophies than achievements, I don't see the difference between a platinum trophy and receiving maximum achievement points. The one exception may be when the game developer releases new content for the game and increases the achievement or trophy count. With trophies you will always have your platinum but you may only have 1000 achievement points out of a new total of 1250 unless you go back and earn the achievements for the new content. I'm not sure it matters that much.

Trophy and achievement hunting is a game itself. While I enjoyed Far Cry 4 enough to earn all of the trophies, it is not something I do for all the video games I play. After all, I think I am doing good just to get to the end of the main story.

Video Game Review: Far Cry 3

Recently I finished playing Far Cry 3 on my PlayStation 3 console. I found a really cheap copy that included Far Cry 2 and Far Cry Blood Dragon. I have yet to play the other two games but interestingly enough, I have played some of Far Cry 4 on my PS4. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I thought I would go back and see if there is any tie into the game before. Nope, you can play each game in any order as they don't rely on each other at all.

Before starting the game I did review a few online guides. The game has an ESRB rating of M for Mature. One of the reasons is because of nudity and that's not something I want to see when I play video games. I read that there really only is nudity at the end if you make a specific choice. They lied. There is another section in the game with some brief nudity. The M rating also applies to language and a lot of violence.

I finished playing Red Dead Redemption and really enjoyed that style of game. I tried a number of other games but couldn't find anything else I enjoyed nearly as much. Fortunately I stuck with Far Cry 3 long enough to discover that it is an open-world game where you can try to stick to the main story or go off and do other things just like Red Dead Redemption. I have to say that I really enjoyed Far Cry 3 and enjoyed playing all the way through the game. I spent about 10 weeks on the game. Remember that I only play about 3 nights a week for 1 to 2 hours and so it took me a lot of calendar time to complete it but not a lot of total time.

Far Cry 3 is published by Ubisoft and I have found myself playing a lot of their games lately. I got my copy of the game for $1 and recommend it if you are looking for an inexpensive game for an adult video gamer still playing games on the previous generation of consoles.

Video Game Review: Far Cry 4

Last night I found myself at home with nobody around and 4 hours of uninterrupted "Me" time. As someone who spends 3 to 4 days a week away from home, I have no shortage of "Me" time and I would have much rather been spending the evening with my wife. However as she had plans to spend time with our 2 daughters, I took advantage of the situation and sat down in front of my television. I recently purchased a bunch of PlayStation 3 video games but also have a number of PlayStation 4 video games that have yet to have the wrappers removed. It probably took too long deciding which game to play but I settled on "Aliens: Colonial Marines."

Hey wait, that isn't the title of this review. Well it had been a while since I had turned my Utah PS3 on and so there was an update required. I then turned on my PS4 and figured out where I last left off in my game of Far Cry 4. It was not my intent to play it all night though. When my PS3 finished updating, I needed to download an update for the Aliens video game. Naturally I went back to the PS4.

Everyone had told me that "Aliens: Colonial Marines" was a waste of the $1 I paid for the game (wrapper still on the package) but I wanted to test it out for myself. I settled in to play the game with a nice refreshing beverage handy as I was ready for a workout. Oh was it a workout. I discovered I really suck at certain video games. It became painfully clear that I have no dexterity when it comes to proper use of the controller. I figured out that I can't fire and move at the same time. While I enjoy playing first-person shooters like Aliens, I am not very good at them. After restarting at the same point for like the 20th time, I turned off the game and went back to my PS4. I am probably done playing Aliens unless I want to work on my hand/eye coordination, which I may. I would like to add that it was well worth the $1 I paid for it so if you can find it cheap, it is entertaining.

Before continuing I have to give the following disclaimer: I met one of the developers of Far Cry 4 at a video game developers conference and he provided me with a code to download the game for free. I would have been willing to shell out $60 for the game as the trailers and reviews made it look that good.

I am only a few hours into the game and will continue playing it to completion. Yes, it is that good. The visuals are very stunning as you run through a beautiful alpine setting in the fictitious country of Kyrat. This is my first Far Cry game and so I am probably unaccustomed to the game mechanics familiar to long-time franchise players. Even then there are plenty of helps along the way and so it is fairly easy to pick up. There are a number of gun battles and my aforementioned controller deficiency doesn't keep me from enjoying the game.

Far Cry 4 is rated "M" for mature and definitely lives up to the rating. While the gun battles are not overly grotesque, there is a lot of strong language and I understand there is some nudity in the game. I have not gotten to that part but understand if I stay true to my morals, I shouldn't come across it in the game. I would recommend the game to college-aged or older guys looking for a visually stunning video game.