In my experience, games the originate on computers shouldn't move to PC. Something about the UI and the general movement advantage a mouse has over a controller makes me second guess buying a game made on PC for my consoles. 7 days to die was a surprisingly refreshing survival game. I have about 450+ hours logged on the game on steam and I had mastered almost every trick in the book for base design, base defense, basic combat, Pvp fights, and farming methods. When switching to the console, I felt like on console the game was slightly more difficult in hand to hand combat with zombies due to the controllers joystick design, but it doesn't take long to figure out the patterns in fights. This little learning curve, in addition to the general low framerate that you get when running through the map, made me think the game would be subpar compared to its PC counterpart. Surprisingly enough, the framerate is just a temporary flaw, generally found in random generated maps. The game really did bring back some fun memories and created a few more (so far in my time playing it).

As we know the game is in its alpha stages and has plenty of bugs that need to be worked out, and I don't think consumers were made aware of this because I have heard a lot of people complain saying that it seems like its just a beta rather than a really game. In some ways, they are right, it is in its early stages, but at the same time, it was only a $30 purchase and it shows potential on console, as long as they iron out the bugs that loom over this gold mine of a video game for the console community.

All in all, I believe this game needs some retouching on the use of the UI and the zombie hit boxes need to be made more forgiving for consoles. Besides the other bugs such as floating fire, zombies teleporting to different positions, and zombies dying standing up, this game is a very fun, creative, and worthwhile purchase on the PSN or Xbox Live.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MY SUMMARIZED OPINION, PLEASE SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM:

During the first closed beta, I got to try the game and explore the map to see how the mechanics work and feel. Yesterday, I got to play the game with a few friends and I got my first taste at what The Division's potential really is.

Me and my friend ran through the two exciting but short missions that are available in the open beta and we enjoyed the intense short to mid range combat that occurred in these encounters. The maps and levels really encourage tactical teamwork with multiple players. The missions also play well in single player but the mission doesn't lower the enemy count if you go solo. This can greatly discourage players due to the difficulty, but the game truly shows what an MMO can achieve in cooperative missions.

One of the games most notable game modes is the Darkzone. This is a multiplayer PvE/PvP game mode where you can chose to work together or betray fellow agents. This game mode will consume most of your time on the division beta. I promise you that this game mode will be both stressful and frustrating. when you are constantly surrounded by unstable agents, more powerful AI, and a snowstorm, this mix can cause a lot of people to get angry and quit because of the difficulty. Something you need to know: this game has a larger learning curve than other shooters. For example, Headshots will do more damage than body shots, but to make the most of each shot, activating pulse will increase your chance for a critical hit which will put a damage multiplier of 1.5 for that shot.

Going into the dark zone with a teammate is almost necessary if you want to be successful more than 50% of the time. Me and my friend equipped weaponry and skills that worked with each other (Me: pump shotgun, Assault rifle, pulse, health grenade) (Him: DMR, Assault rifle, sticky bomb, pulse) to make our encounters more efficient and effective. Other agents would equip 2 shotguns or 2 LMG's and this made their area of effectiveness limited. Use this list to tell what weapons you should use:

Sniper: You like to stay out of range and take off unsuspecting enemies' heads. (DMR, SMG, Pulse, Health)

Assault: You like to be up close and personal with the enemy and prefer quantity over quality when it comes to bullets. (AR, Shotgun, Pulse / Placeable turret, Health)

Support: You lay down suppressive fire for teammate and when it comes to bosses, you hit the hardest. (LMG, AR, Pulse, Riot shield)

Medic: You support the team and keep them Alive while helping them at a distance. (DMR - short scope is suggested, SMG / Shotgun, Health, Pulse)

These are just some ideas for starting load outs, but you can modify them to your liking.

In short, the game is great with great customization. The game isn't perfect, but it shows lots of promise and seems to show some light at the end of the tunnel for Ubisoft.

We all remember the days. We would play Spyro with a couple of friends or try to get the fastest time on a run through world 1 in Super Mario Bros. But what happened that took this old joy out of the new games?

It's all an effect of the modern day game developers trying to cater to the newer audience, or at least a part of it is. You see, Modern day video games have a new, younger audience that is more likely to spend their money (or their parents money) on the newest games and all of the Dlc because they aren't experienced to know what they are getting in that DLC pack or in that expansion. Video game corporations have taken ahold of the younger audience as their main revenue stream, and it shows with certain games. Minecraft has an average user age of 14, Halo 5 reduced the graphic content to get a T rating on their game to be more appealing to concerned parents, and Video game trailers are becoming so cheesy that it makes any adult cringe. These are just a few examples of how video game companies are trying to move their user base to a younger audience.

Another way these companies are developing a younger consumer base is where they put their funding in the game design. Kids nowadays buy games for the multiplayer so they can play with their friends. Now don't get me wrong, I love gaming with my friends just as much as the next guy, but the issue is the funding ratio in the game design. Game designers will generally focus on putting a majority effort into either multiplayer or single player. This creates games like call of duty, where the game design was centered around multiplayer, with the single player as an afterthought in the newer installments. Battlefield 4 and Battlefield Hardline are good examples of this as they have pretty great multiplayer, however, the single player lacks a good story. Halo 5 is having a similar issue with it's terrible single player, but its redeeming new arena modes and the new, massive-team battle, game mode war zone.

A majority of people say good story driven single player games are far and few in-between. This is true and false at the same time. For example Fallout 4, a survival, FPS, RPG is a great single player only game, but what was the one complaint they received on a regular basis when they game came out? "Where is the multiplayer?" "Why couldn't you include dedicated server gaming" "Why can't I play with my friend?" This sways a companies design choices since they focused on making the game 100% single player and didn't focus on including other players. With this feedback, they might start building their next game with a multiplayer functionality and the game design won't be near as spectacular as Oblivion, Skyrim, or Fallout.

There are some ways companies have gotten around the issue of putting money toward different parts of the game. Both Ubisoft in The Division and Rockstar in their Red Dead Redemption and GTA installations use the same map for both single player and multiplayer. This ingenuity of putting max funding into map design and then incorporating the story and multiplayer situations into the map is a great way for a game designer to appeal to the gamer. (I would include Destiny in the list but let's just pretend that game never existed) The reason why these game inevitably lose popularity is the inability to put out good content fast enough for common players. GTA V lost some of its steam when the updates it put out were just a couple of cars and some new clothes or a new house. Games like these need to include enough story or missions to keep the player constantly entertained and the game developers need to spend more time on the DLC and make it have a lot more materials to keep the game interesting, like new missions versus just new visuals.

What will need to happen, if we are going to get a quality multiplayer and single player game, is gamedevs will need to build and multiplayer game and a single player game and sell them separately. Now I know this sounds awful (personally I don't want to spend any money at all) but these companies are working with the budget that they have, and if they can't make enough to put out two great game modes, then I don't see games improving to be an all-around great game these days.

What are some of the ways you think video game companies could develop a great single and multiplayer game?

Hey everyone!

The beta for the new Third person shooter RPG, The Division, Is going to be available tomorrow for closed access users. The game will feature all of the options of the full game, and will be available up until the 31 of January. A lot of people have mixed feelings about this game, but how do we know how good or bad it is until we have tried it?

WE ALL WANT THE DIVISION TO BE GOOD

We want this game to at least live up to the hype that it cultivated at its release at E3, but after the second gameplay trailer of the Darkzone, we notice some bigger differences about the graphics and gunplay. If you haven't seen it, click the video below:

We know that Ubisoft doesn't always deliver when they promised a gorgeous, realistic world in Watch_Dogs and their rich and realistic animations in Assassins Creed, but will this game be any different? We have seen the gameplay in realtime now so we know how the game functions, but will it be playable? Will it be balanced? Let me just answer those questions now with a comparison:

When a lot of us bought Destiny, we thought we were going to get a HUGE world with a deep story and unpredictable enemies. What we got at launch was a bare game world with no story at all. After a while, the game implemented slight story improvements with a large leap at The Taken King DLC. The reason why this game failed was the amount the DLC cost (Two expansions before the taken king totaling to $30 with the Taken King expansion at the whopping price of $40) This game was improved based on player feedback and game designer insight.

What I am saying is, the game won't be perfect at launch. That's why we buy it and play it. We give feedback, we work with the community, and we find ways to improve the game. If you are into open-world MMO's, this game is directly up your alley. Did you play Warframe, Destiny, LoL, or Dota 2, and love the grind for new equipment and weapons? This game looks to be perfect for you. If you are a relaxed gamer who prefers the constant FPS action of call of duty or a competitive player who slogs through ranks in competitive Counterstrike? This may not be the game for you. It's all based on preference.

I personally am working on Fallout 4 right now, and I have noticed a lot of similarities between it and The Division. Let me show you:

Fallout 4's crafting mechanic and looting system functions entirely on RNG. Now, it isn't like Destiny with it's rare purple engram drop (I have pulled out too much hair from that game) but how it knows your rank and it knows the kind of armor or weapons to drop for you. For example, the game starts spawning combat rifles when you reach rank 15. You can customize these guns to fit your play style (powerful automatic for midrange assault on raider locations or armor piercing for sniping power armor or animals like armored mirelurks). This kind of crafting mechanic allows for the player to engage targets in their own way or style. This game design is what captivates grinding gamers. Similar to Fallout, The Division will allow you to start the game with customizing your character's physical features as well as skill traits.

Knowing this information, what are your opinions on the game? What are you excited about in this game, and what do you want to show up in the final build of the game at launch?