Video Game Review: Battlefield V

Recently I finished playing Battlefield V from Electronic Arts or EA on my PS4. I enjoyed playing both Battlefield 3 on the PS3 and Battlefield I on the PS4. Interestingly enough, you cannot rely on the ending number to figure out which game comes before others as the number one in Battlefield I refers to the World War I experience and came out after Battlefield 4.

I started playing Battlefield V several times for various research projects at work. When PlayStation Plus released Call of Duty: WWII, I became interested in the history of World War II. After completing the game, I headed back and restarted Battlefield V. While both games are fiction, they do have ties to actual events in the war and I enjoyed the historical aspects of both games.

While earlier versions of EA's Battlefield games focused on a single-player campaign, Battlefield I and Battlefield V have a relatively short campaign with an emphasis on online play. I didn't mind as I don't have as much time at home to play video games and didn't want to spend months on the same game. Battlefield V is only a 9-hour game to complete all of the campaign missions. There are 5 of them and the last one you play as a German tank commander towards the end of the war. All of the campaign battles take place in the European theater and so if you are looking for anything in the Pacific, you will have to try one of the online experiences.

I used to be a huge online player but had too many negative experiences where I would go online and get continually annihilated before I could fire my first shot. Since then I haven't really bothered except in the rare case where I want to get the platinum trophy for a particular game that requires an online trophy or two. The online experience for Battlefield V looks pretty good and so you will want to look at another review to get a complete picture of the game.

I have a work associate that used to work at EA who picked me up the game for only $20. Best Buy has the game for only $18 right now and I think it is well worth the price even if you only play the single-player campaign part of the game. If you are looking for a WWII-genre game and have not yet played Battlefield V, I recommend giving it a try. 

The game has an ESRB rating of M for Mature because of violence and language. War is never pretty and one thing playing war-related video games has taught me is that I never want to fight in a real war.

Happy Halloween

This year Halloween is on a Tuesday and so I find myself in the Bay Area. Nobody will come trick-or-treating to my boat and so there is no need to provide anyone with candy. That is a good thing because I don't need any candy tempting me to eat more sugar than I already do. So I am wondering what I will do to make today unique from any other day of the week that I am on the boat.

I thought about playing a scary game. One of the free games for PS Plus subscribers is called Amnesia and is supposed to be scary. I started playing it at work last week and decided it is not a game that I enjoy, so I stopped playing it. This surprised a lot of my coworkers as they have all seen the critical acclaim it has received. Instead I will continue playing Uncharted 4. It should be a fun evening but not really different than last night as I did the same thing.

While I may not be in the Halloween mood, I have decided that tomorrow I will string up Christmas lights on my boat. Last year I did that for the first time and liked it so much I am looking forward to doing it again this year. Sure Christmas is several months away but I always enjoy the season and am looking forward to starting early this year. In the mean time, I hope everyone enjoys Halloween this year.

Telltale Games

This afternoon I finished playing "Game of Thrones" from Telltale Games. A few weeks ago I finished playing "Tales from the Borderlands," which is another Telltale game. Rather than review them separately, I thought I would review them together. Review is probably too strong a word as I will do more describing of what it is like to play any Telltale game. They all play very similarly. These are not the first games I have played from this game developer as I also played "The Walking Dead."

Playing Telltale games is a lot like watching a slightly interactive movie. There are a lot of scenes where you have no control over what is going on. Then every once and a while you can choose your dialog or make some minimal button presses on your controller. If you don't select the dialog quickly enough, you don't say anything and that has an effect on the story. Given the choice of watching a movie alone or playing a Telltale game, I much prefer a game.

"Game of Thrones" played very similar to "The Walking Dead." I felt like no matter what I did, people I cared about still died. When things started going well, bad things quickly followed. I am sure that a lot of that has to do with the original content that the games are based upon. I have never watched an episode of "Game of Thrones" on HBO but I did watch a lot of "The Walking Dead" on AMC. Ultimately I stopped watching because I got tired of seeing people struggle against all odds to better themselves only to have circumstances beyond control propel them back to having where they were before. Some people enjoy that formula and it keeps them entertained. I don't and so I stopped watching. After playing "Game of Thrones," I probably won't be watching that series at all.

"Tales from the Borderlands" is based on a video game and is actually quite humorous. I enjoyed finishing the game and it constantly kept me entertained. The game still had the element of succeeding only to crash but much less than the other games.

One nice thing about Telltale games on the PlayStation platforms is that most reward you with a platinum trophy for completing the game. Both "Game of Thrones" and "Tales from the Borderlands" had platinum trophies. If you are into trophy hunting, then definitely play as many Telltale games as you can. I paid nothing for either of my latest Telltale games as they came for free as part of my PlayStation Plus subscription. If you had the chance to add them to your library while they were available, I highly recommend playing them. If you ask me how much I would pay to play them, $5 sounds about right but I doubt you could find them for that price.

Video Game Review: Thief

I felt so great when I was finally able to finish Bioshock Infinite that I was eager to see what the free video game download on PlayStation Plus for the PlayStation 3 was for the month of February. There were two and the more interesting of them was Thief. I have a PlayStation 3 that I keep on my boat in the Bay Area and so I downloaded it one evening while I slept. My Internet connection on the boat is not very fast and so it took a bit longer than if I was at home or in the office.

Thief was created by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix. I asked the guys at work about the game and they all said it got bad reviews. That didn't deter me from playing and so I started playing one evening and couldn't stop for several hours. Instead of running around trying to kill people like you would with a first-person shooter, you are thief and try to sneak around without being noticed. It was very refreshing as I wasn't constantly trying to kill everything in sight. There are also a lot of puzzles to solve including picking various locks, looking for important items, and figuring out where to go next.

Unfortunately I get bored by video games rather easily and so the next night I went to play the game but it didn't hold my interest nearly as long. Instead of wanting to play through for several hours, I was good for about an hour and then decided to move onto other things. I still want to finish the game but the end of the month is coming quickly and I am afraid I may jump onto another game instead. We'll see how this week goes.

Don't Start Bioshock Infinite Unless You Have Time

Earlier this week, I downloaded a copy of Bioshock Infinite for my PS3. The artistic rendering of the characters made it seem interesting to me and so I started playing it. My oldest son had played earlier versions of the game and coached me through the first few minutes. He instructed me to spend time looking around and collecting items. It was good advice.

My son had to head back to his apartment at school and left me to play alone. It is a good thing I was playing at home on the TV in my bedroom. When my wife got tired she came in and told me to turn it off and go to bed. Had I been alone on the boat in the Bay Area, I would have kept playing all night long. When I did turn it off, I was half tempted to wait until my wife was fast asleep so I could keep playing. I knew better though because if she woke up and caught me sitting on the end of the bed playing a video game, I would be in serious trouble.

Bioshock Infinite is a great game for me. I like first person shooter games but have grown tired of the constant attention you have to pay to keep from getting killed. This game has a little bit of puzzle solving, a little bit of exploring, and a little bit of shooting. It all adds up to a fun game that I have enjoyed playing the last few nights. I think I am doing pretty good at not playing during the work day as that would be easy to do.

I downloaded the game to my PS3 from the PlayStation Network as it is free this month for PlayStation Plus members. This game alone makes it worth the annual fee for PlayStation Plus. I highly recommend it.

Correction

Wouldn't you know it, I was wrong. Yesterday I said that I couldn't log into the PlayStation Network from my new PlayStation 4. While that was correct earlier in the day, I finished my blog entry and gave it one last shot for the day. I was successfully able to log in and download some of the free PS4 launch games. The games are free to all PlayStation Plus members and since there is a free trial that comes with each new PS4, everyone should take advantage of the free games. Our favorite right now is Resogun. It is reminiscent of the old arcade-style games with much better graphics. I'd write more, but my son and I are having too much fun with our new toy.