Author: Elizabeth Beine

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5 Video Game Christmas Gift Ideas

This blog post will be a bit different this time because it is the holiday season and Christmas is upon us. So here are 5 video game presents you can get for someone special (or just for yourself there is no judging here.)

  • Pokemon Sword and Shield

Yes there is another Pokemon game released and everyone is loving it. This generation of Pokemon is once again created by Game Freak and was released in November only on the Switch. I don’t really need to explain the premise of a Pokemon game because everyone knows about it in some capacity.

  • Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

This Star Wars game is an action adventure game developed by Respawn Entertainment. The game is set during the time after Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and you play as a young Jedi padawan. You have to complete your Jedi training and restore the wiped out Jedi Order. It was released in November for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

  • Apex Legends

Apex Legends is a free to play battle royale game kinda like Fortnite and Overwatch. It was created by Respawn Entertainment and was released on February for PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. Why get it as a present now even though it was released at the beginning of the year you ask. Because there is an expansion or new season that is coming to Apex and you don’t want to miss out.

  • Ring Fit Adventure

Ring Fit is a new exercising action RPG created by Nintendo. By using a ring like controller you run around the game and using the controller can also fight enemies within the game. A great way to have fun and stay active during the winter season. It was released in October and is available for the Switch.

  • Pre Order Cyberpunk 2077

Now Cyberpunk is not yet released until April 2020, but you can still pre order the game and get it the day it comes out. It is being developed by Projekt Red and there is so much hype around the game. So check it out. Here is the video that was released showing of its gameplay. Just a heads up the game is rated M for mature.

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Fable II

Fable II is the second game in the Fable series developed by Lionhead Studios. It was released in 2008.

The story in Fable II is that you are a homeless orphan living with your sister on the streets of Albion. The Heroes’ Guild doesn’t exist anymore after Jack of Blades was defeated in Fable and that everything is a lot safer now. You and your sister wish for a better life and to hopefully live in a castle one day. That night you get taken to the castle in Albion but later find out it was only to see if you have any blood of past heroes. Your sister gets killed by the lord and you fall into the lake and barely survive.

Theresa later finds you and raises you to become another Hero that Albion needs. The main quest then is to now find the 3 other heroes and prevent the lord of the castle to complete the Tattered Spire and send Albion into a new dark age.

I have mentioned in a previous blog article about the dog you hang out with in Fable II. You meet the dog when you are homeless with your sister and he never leaves your side when you grow up and become the Hero. In the game you can teach your dog tricks, get it toys and a collar, have it find treasure for you, and also fight side by side.

But don’t forget all the possible side work you can do in the game to earn extra money. There is blacksmithing, wood chopping, bartending, and also being a landlord.

Fable II is available only for the Xbox 360.

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Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is another of the many Assassin’s Creed games created by Ubisoft and was released in 2010.

It has the same style of gameplay that all the Assassin’s Creed games have. Which makes it easy to keep playing the games when you learn new gameplay styles each time. Brotherhood is the continuation of Ezio Auditore in 1499. The next chapter in his story takes you to fallen times in Rome. There you once again have to prevent the Templars from finding any pieces of Eden and taking control of people’s freewill. Still fighting the Templars you help rebuild the Assassin’s Brotherhood by taking in people and training them to become like you and help fight. Ezio even starts his journey on becoming the Grandmaster Assassin in the Brotherhood.

Rebuilding the Brotherhood is more of a side faction quest in the game and very fun to do. You can recruit new Assassins by saving Roman citizens from being attacked or even killed by Templars. But don’t forget to get buildings for your new crew, or else they have nowhere to go. Later on in the quest you also initiate Ezio’s younger sister into the Brotherhood. Once you unlock the feature of thieves, mercenaries, and courtesans within the new Brotherhood you can start using them to distract or even fight by your side against the Templars.

Apart from rebuilding the Brotherhood you also get the chance of restoring Rome to its former glory. Simply by restoring buildings and stores within Rome with money which later on help you gain more money and allies within the game.

Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is available for Playstation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, and PC.

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Death Stranding

Death Stranding is an action game developed by Kojima Productions and released in Nov. 2019.

The game is set in an open world and considered to be more of a stealth action game set in an apocalyptic US. There was an event known as the “Death Stranding” causing “Beached Things”, or invisible creatures from the “Beaches”, roaming the earth and also creating “Timefall” rain, that rapidly begins to age and deteriorates anything it touches.

You get to play as Sam Bridges, a porter with the Bridges company. As a porter you help deliver supplies and cargo to one city to the next. And with the help of a “Bridge Baby”, or BB, you can see and avoid any of the BTs that roam around. Your main mission in the game is to connect all of the cities left in the US to the Chiral Network so then civilization can survive and thrive once again.

Death Stranding is a bit different from most action games today. With other action games you get a gun and main enemy right away and you start fighting from beginning to the end. But with Death Standing you start off using stealth to avoid any BTs and then later in the game start creating and using guns. The game is also not focused on fighting the enemy but trying to reconnect people throughout the country to start working together by being a porter.

While playing the game you can very easily recognize two actor cameos. The first one is Sam Bridges, who the actor for him is Norman Reedus. The other and more fun one, is a citizen you meet during the mission, Conan O’Brien. There are also a lot more cameos within the game. Can you find them all?

Death Stranding is only for Playstation 4 and the PC.

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Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the most popular game in the Elder Scrolls series created by Bethesda and originally released in 2011.

Skyrim is set in the same world as all the other Elder Scrolls games. It is about 201 years after the events of Oblivion taking place in Skyrim. Skyrim is a more Nordic providence compared to Oblivion and in the game there is a civil war going on between the Stormcloaks, native Nordics, and the Imperial Legion.

You as the player are a Dragonborn, a mortal with the soul and power of a dragon. You find out after being almost executed, but interrupted by the return of Alduin, the primary antagonist, a dragon that wants to destroy and consume the world. The main quest as the Dragonborn is to find and kill all of the revived dragons. Also, to kill Alduin and prevent the destruction of the world.

Of course one of the main features of the game that everyone loves is fighting the dragons and learning their Shouts, the power of the dragons, but there are many other side quests and guilds you can explore. You can even choose a side in the civil war and help fight for the Stormcloaks or the Imperials.

Even though Skyrim is over 8 years old by now people are still playing and enjoying the game. The main source behind that is modding community. There are insane mods that you can find and add to your game from making dragons into Thomas the Tank Engine, to getting customized player’s houses or cities, to event mods that are practically DLCs for the game and has as much content as the main game itself.

Skyrim is available for the PC, Playstation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, and the Switch

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Anthem

Anthem is a MMO role-playing game developed by Bioware and was released in 2019.

In the game Anthem you live on an unnamed planet filled with advanced tech relics called The Anthems of Creations. You are a Javelin pilot mercenary, called a Freelancer, who is part of an expedition to stop an Anthem of Creation device. But the expedition goes horribly wrong and you are one of the few survivors. 2 years later you have made the city, Fort Tarsis, you home base working with others as a Freelancer. On one of your missions you uncover an enemy leader called The Monitor and his plan of taking the power of the Anthem of Creation. You are one of the few that can stop him. Good luck.

The way you fight and explore in Anthem is with the use of your Javelin. Javelin’s are exosuits to help the rider survive the wilds and take down enemies. You can fly, swim, and run all over the worst terrain with a full kit of weapons and gear to deal damage. There are 4 types: Ranger, Storm, Colossus, or Interceptor. Ranger is the all around combat javelin and the most versatile. Colossus is known to be the tank with it being specialized in defense and heavy artillery including a cannon. Storm is more of the “mage” javelin, using seal technology to blast enemies with the power of the Anthem. Lastly the Interceptor, the one I love, is the quick and sneaky javelin. Using its fast speed and flight you can quickly attack and evade enemy strikes with the ultimate ease.

  • Ranger
  • Colossus
  • Storm
  • Interceptor

One of the features that Bioware took most of its time developing was making the Javelins fly. They did amazing work and it is so much fun to explore the map and see everything that is hidden.

Sadly Anthem was a game that, I believed, was rushed at the end to release it to the public. There is not much story content and even though the map was very complex it was on the smaller size. The game fully right now is a very strong backbone but there is not a lot of meat to the game and I hope there will be story updates in the future.

Anthem is available for Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a MMO role-playing game in the Star Wars universe, developed by Bioware and released in 2011.

In this game you play in the Star Wars universe during the shaky peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Republic. You get to play one of the eight different classes in a three part story line. You can choose to align with the Sith or the Republic, but watch out because you can easily switch between the light and dark morality no matter which side you are on.

Each side, Sith or Republic, contains different classes (8 in total). For the Republic you can become a Jedi Knight, Jedi Consular, Trooper, or a Smuggler. For the Sith there is Sith Warrior, Sith Inquisitor, Imperial Agent, and Bounty Hunter. And there are different companions and friends you can gain along the way depending on what class you chose. Now the story you play in the game will change depending on what class you chose. So if you think about it you can play this game about 8 times.

Another feature apart from the character class is what species you want to play as, but some species are limited in certain classes. On both sides you can play as a human, cyborg, twi’lek, and zabrak. On the Sith side you can also choose from the Chiss, Rattataki, and Sith Pureblood. On the Republican side there is also the Miraluka and Mirialan species.

Ever since SWTOR was released in 2011 there have been many expansion packs also released to the game. Which is easier to do for a PC games than console games. There was the Rise of the Hutt Cartel in 2013. The Galactic Starfighter, Galactic Strongholds, Shadow of Revan in 2014. Knights of the Fallen Empire in 2015. Knights of the Eternal Throne in 2016 and Onslaught in 2019. And it doesn’t look like Bioware is done with SWTOR anytime soon.

SWTOR is available only on PC.

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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Odyssey is the newest game in the Assassin’s Creed series created by Ubisoft and released in 2018.

Odyssey is set in 431 BC during the times of the Greek empire. You get to be the child of a war general and the descendant of Leonidas. You are also gifted Leonidas’ spear head from your mother during your childhood. But you and your sibling are thrown off a mountain because of an oracle’s prophecy. You survive and end up on the island of Kefalonia to grow up to become a Misthios, or mercenary. Through doing odd jobs and mercenary work you learn what happened to your family after your fall. You also uncover a plot from the Cult, also known to be the Templars at that time, trying to corrupt both Sparta and Athens to keep the war going.

But don’t get absorbed into the main mission. There is so much more that the game offers in the game. You can become a legend in Greek history by becoming friends with the gods and fighting all the monsters that existed in Greek mythology.

  • Medusa
  • Sphinx
  • Cyclops
  • Minotaur

One of the features that I love in Odyssey is that you can either play as Alexios or Kassandra. I chose to play as Kassandra and Alexios became my younger brother within the game. Later in the game you get to meet your sibling again after the falling of a mountain incident, but be careful because they were raised by the Cult and became your enemy. Don’t lose hope though, there is a chance to save them and become a family again.

Another thing I fell in love with in Odyssey is the amazing landscapes and locations that you get to visit in Greece. From Athens, Sparta, to even the islands surrounding Greece.

Odyssey is available for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.

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Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Black Flag is the 6th Assassin’s Creed game in the series created by Ubisoft in 2013. The game itself is based during the golden age of piracy in the Caribbean.

If you didn’t already know about the game Assassin’s Creed the plot of the games is basically set in a fictional history of real world events following the age-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight for peace and free will, and the Templars, who want peace through control. The really cool thing about these games is that every place and event in the game are as historically correct. Apart from you running around killing Templars of course.

The story for Black Flag is that you are a newbie pirate named Edward Kenway that washes up on an island after a stormy night to find and unravel a conspiracy between high ranking Templars from the British and Spanish empires that involves getting a blood sample from everyone to control them with a device like no other. Kenway then takes the mantle of a rogue Assassin he met and obtains his ship the Jackdaw to hopefully earn a profit or end the conspiracy. Later on in the game you meet and become friends with other pirates during that time including Blackbeard, James Kidd, Charles Vane and more.

As a pirate, you don’t just need an excellent ship and crew to be the best. You also need a hideout and in Black Flag your hideout is your own Cove. After getting money, raiding, and doing what all pirates do you can then upgrade your Cove to get your own Manor, a Tavern, a harbor master and more. But don’t forget to also upgrade your ship the Jackdaw. The more you upgrade it and also customize it you can start taking down whole armadas and forts.

Black Flag is available for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Switch, Wii U, and PC.

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Outer Worlds

Outer Worlds is a new RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment and was released just last Friday.

As a gamer and fan of Obsidian I did get Outer Worlds when it released as have been playing it every day. And I love it. It is so much fun to play and I don’t know how far I am in the story line, but there is still so much to do and explore. It is also amazing to know that the studio that produced Outer Worlds also produced Fallout: New Vegas, but in space.

The story of Outer Worlds, without spoilers, is that from the alternate future and timeline of Fallout megacorporations have begun colonizing alien planets. Your character was going to be one of the colonists in the start, but when in cryosleep the ship you came on, Hope, got lost. About 60 years later the corporations found the ship but kept it a secret. Fortunately a mad scientist wakes you from hibernation to get your help to save everyone else on Hope and find out the true nature of the corporations.

Thankfully you are not alone in the fight with the corporations. You gain a weird and badass crew to that becomes your family. There is Parvati (your mechanic), Vicar Max (ex-priest), Felix (newbie outlaw), Ellie (your doctor), Nyoka (a guide and hunter), SAM (ex cleaning machine turned killing machine), and ADA (your ship AI).

  • Parvati
  • Vicar Max
  • Felix
  • Ellie
  • Nyoka
  • SAM
  • ADA

Apart from your crew there are multiple factions, corporate or not, that you can help and become allies with. The main ones are the Groundbreaker, Iconoclasts, Monarch Stellar Industries, Sublight Salvage & Shipping, and The Board. Others you can also help along the way are Auntie Cleo’s, Deserters, and Spacer’s Choice. Now you should also know that you can gain allies or become enemies with any of the factions, so be careful.

Outer Worlds is available for the Xbox 360, Playstation 4, and PC