Outriders: The First 4 Hours

 

 Outriders is a futuristic sci-fi looter shooter. If that description sounds confusing, imagine Destiny, Gears of War, and The Division all rolled into one. Within the first 30 minutes of gameplay, your customized character gets to experience not one, but two apocalypses. The beginning of the story leans heavily on the themes of man's insatiable appetite for resources and power even at the cost of his own survival. 

The character creator is pretty standard, offering enough options to customize your look but not enough to really wow you. The skill trees however are massive. There are 4 classes each with 3 different skill trees that are very long and offer a lot of options to really define your play style. Each class is slightly different but all seem to focus on DPS more than anything else. This game is co-op, so if you play with friends who are different classes it’ll be entertaining to watch for sure, but if you are one of those players who really like being the healer you may be out of luck. 

A key component to any looter shooter is of course, the loot. The weapons and armor are a pretty standard mix of rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, jackets, pants and shoes. The variety is still there though, but it happens in the abilities attached to the gear. Things like a buff for a specific ability or even a new ability all together, like a shield generated on every kill. Between health buffs, bonus damage, and reduced ability timers, I often found myself choosing gear based on these bonuses instead of their levels, rarity or damage output. 

 The combat is brutal and satisfying. Grunts move a lot and require just enough strategy to keep you engaged without being stupidly difficult. Bosses and leaders require a little more, but aren’t going to make you rage quit. It's a gratifying challenge even on a replay with a new class. The ability timers are excellent, offering a regular dose of mayhem from your fingertips, without allowing you to just wipe the floor with your enemies. Combined with the gory way the enemies end up after a fight, you get a clear picture of the destructive force your character wields and boy does it feel good. 

The world of Outriders seems rich and well developed. Side quests can actually affect the world, though we don’t know yet if those effects play any part in the story or are just minor world adjustments. There are copious amounts of dialogue options, and the NPCs are full of personality, earning your affections or disdain even when they are clearly standard archetypes. I quickly found myself choosing the order I accomplished different quests, based on the character who gave them to me and how much I liked them. 

Outriders seems like a fun, fast paced addition to the looter shooter genre. Between the high octane combat, beautiful world, and intriguing cast of characters, it entertains without revolutionizing the formula. And with multiple classes and expansive skill trees, it offers a ton of replayability. This will definitely be a game I play well past the first 4 hours. 

Outriders is out now for Playstation, Xbox, and PC

Absolute Drift: The First 4 Hours

 

Absolute Drift is an alternative driving game that focuses on the Japanese art of Drifting. I use the term art because that is clearly the perspective of the designers. The minimalist art style, mixed with the not so subtle nods to the culture and origins of drifting, shows a love and reverence for the style that goes far beyond a weekend trip to a local racetrack to chug redbulls and take pictures with models. This is for people who watched Inital D and know who Kunimitsu Takahashi is. This isn’t a Fast and Furious wannabe drifting game. This is a love letter to the art of drifting. 

Absolute Drift puts you in a top down view and allows you to drive around freely in different “worlds” practicing your car control and perfecting your technique. Each world gives you missions to accomplish to unlock the next world, as well as different tracks with their own goals for you to achieve. You can unlock a small variety of cars, each with slight differences in power, handling, and braking. The differences are so subtle, there is really no clear advantage to any one car, it really is just your personal preference and driving style. You can unlock all the cars and worlds relatively quickly, however the core of this game isn’t unlocking everything. It’s practice and replay. 

The physics are very accurate for such a simple game, but the top down view takes a lot of getting used to and it prevents you from having any decent point of reference for steering and countersteering. If you want to complete all the challenges, score all the points, and rise up the leaderboards of Absolute Drift, you will need to practice, practice, practice.

Absolute Drift is a fun, artistic take on the alternative driving subgenre. The learning curve is steep, and rewards are minimal but if you enjoy overcoming frustration in pursuit of perfection it is a lot of fun. 

Absolute Drift is available on Xbox, Playstation, and PC

Announcement: New Show on YouTube

A bro-over brocast

Remember when you were younger and you’d have all your friends over to spend the night? All the fun and excitement of playing games, watching movies, and building pillow forts. Then you got older, and there was nothing better than a late night of LAN gaming. You and your buds all connected on the same network, carving your way through dungeons or enemy teams. Now you’re an adult, and you and your bros tend to play maybe a few hours every once in awhile online. You get some small talk over the headset in between loading screens and then jump in long enough to get your gaming fix then it’s off to other responsibilities.

Well in celebration of Monster Hunter World Iceborne, we are reigniting the fun and excitement of those earlier times by having a Bro-over. It’s like a sleep over, with bros! And we are going LAN style, hooking up 3 Xbox One’s in a single room and playing for 2 half days straight. 3 bros hunting new monsters with new armor and using new combos and moves in the new expansion. It’ll be a hunting broscursion! If you want to join us, we will be brocasting this broccasion on Mixer. So come by and hang with some bros playing games like they used to.

Monster Hunter World Iceborne is out now on PS4 and Xbox One

Watch our stream at www.mixer.com/jphspidey

$30,000 iPhone

In 2013 one of the most evil mobile games ever created was introduced on the Google Play Store after being rejected on the iTunes App Store for being too dangerous. The game is called Send Me To Heaven (S.M.T.H.). Why is it so dangerous? The point of the game is to throw your phone as high as possible, besting other players attempt at the “high” score. The creators estimate close to 100,000 phones have met their end as a result of this game. Players have been known to go to great lengths to best each other some as far as dropping phones from airplanes, building huge slingshots to launch them, even tying phones to rockets. 

Well on August 11th the only iPhone known to have a copy of this game running on it went up for sale on Etsy. For the low price of $30,000. The phone was used in the development of the game, and it still works. There are some cracks and dings, but the phone is functional and the game is too, even uploading scores to online leaderboards. It also comes with a case used in the testing of the game. As a bonus, the seller points out the phone also contains the developers ex-girlfriend’s phone number, some heavy metal music, and a few photos of his cat. 

If you want to grab this collector’s item you can check it out here. https://www.etsy.com/no-en/listing/603484887/smth-send-me-to-heaven-game-for-ios

If you want to download the game for your android you can grab it here.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.carrotpop.www.smth

AbleGamers Charity stream

On August 10th The AbleGamers Charity partnered with MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL to host a charity stream of APEX Legends on Twitch. Some of Twitch’s most prominent APEX Legends streamers, including Aydan, H3CZ, and NiceWigg, played over the course of the 12 hour event. NBA player Myles Turner also made an appearance. The AbleGamers Charity promotes the power of video games as a tool to help break down the barriers of economic and social isolation for people with disabilities. AbleGamers provides disabled gamers with assistive technologies that allow those with limited real-world mobility to experience what it is like to walk, run, climb, drive, or even fly in a virtual world. 

“It's an absolute pleasure to work with the MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL team to raise awareness for players with disabilities, as both organizations believe in fostering inclusive communities,” says AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn. “I love that PepsiCo approached us with the idea of using its tremendous platform to help further our mission of creating opportunities to enable play, and improve the quality of life, for people with disabilities.”

The charity event offered The AbleGamers Charity a massive platform to share its mission with a larger audience along with raising $64,000 thanks to an outpouring of donations. MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL put up a matched contribution of $50,000. 

“Since the inception of MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL, our commitment has been to stay focused on the needs of all gamers and to bring value to the in-game experience. This commitment extends beyond the beverage, and into pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of gameplay,” said Erin Chin, Senior Director of Marketing, Mountain Dew. “So when we met the team at The AbleGamers Charity, we were excited to join them in support of their cause to champion the power of doing by making gaming a possibility for everyone, no matter the obstacles in the way.”

Let's Play Hitman 2

A few days ago a few of us got together and decided to play some games. This is my friend Chris' first time playing Hitman 2. He discovered the joys of fish, the excitement of a katana, and the thrill of cosplay. Enjoy!