Xbox One | Gumballs Plays Games

Halo 5 so far

Posted on November 2, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Halo 5 finally arrived this past week, and after spending three days downloading it I finally got to spend some time with it during my day off.

I jumped into a few Arena matches and got my butt handed to me again and again. I think I probably have three kills total in the Arena so far. The Halo 5 multiplayer experience feels very chaotic compared to the games I spent the most time with (CE through Reach). All of the player chatter and weapon spawns make the game feel very busy, maybe too much so. I have to admit, I didn’t really play Halo 4, so maybe this is what Halo feels like now. I’m sure I can get used to it.

The Breakout mode was my favorite from the beta, and I think it’ll be one of my favorite game types in Halo 5. Breakout is a series of rapid rounds in which each member of your team only has one life and you win the round by either capturing a flag or by eliminating the enemy team. The mode is an absolute blast and almost every match I’ve played has felt close.

Warzone is a massive 24 player mode that also features AI combatants and bosses. It feels like it borrows a bit from Titanfall, while also from games like League of Legends. You gain points for holding territory and killing enemy Spartans, but you also gain points for taking out AI combatants and bosses that spawn into the map. Warzone also allows players to use requisitions, which are similar to Titanfall’s burn cards. You can get special weapons or bonuses by using requisitions, and you unlock additional requisition packs as you play multiplayer or via in game purchases.

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I only played one Warzone match and it seemed quite complicated and even more busy than the Arena multiplayer. I enjoyed it, but I felt entirely overwhelmed and mostly just ran around getting myself killed.

I played through the first five story missions today, and it’s been an incredible ride so far. I’m a little out of the loop having not gotten very deep into Halo 4, but I’ve felt invested in the story and its characters from the opening moments. The story itself has been incredibly action packed, and the ending of mission five is the stand out moment of the game so far.

Halo 5’s soundtrack is as epic as ever, quite the relief after 343’s split with Halo composer Marty O’Donnell. I’ve felt chills during intense moments in the game so far, mainly because of the powerful music that accompanies the on screen action. On a similar note, the sound effects in the game are incredible. Every gun is as much a joy to listen to as they are to shoot.

Everything about Halo 5 feels masterfully crafted, however as a Destiny fan I’ve felt myself comparing the gunplay between the two games. Halo 5’s guns certainly sound better than the guns of Destiny, but the act of shooting and downing enemies is still much more satisfying in Bungie’s Destiny over 343’s Halo. It may not be a fair comparison, but I can’t help but pit 343 and Bungie against each other. Despite not living up to Destiny’s quality, Halo 5’s shooting mechanics are by no means bad. Halo is certainly a very capable shooter, part of me just wishes it felt a bit more satisfying.

Bungie may have the edge when it comes to gunplay, but 343 wins hands down when it comes to storytelling. Halo 5’s cutscenes are sure to have your pulse pounding, and some of Master Chief’s lines will probably have a die hard Halo fan grinning from ear to ear. It’s not all about Master Chief, however, as a second fireteam led by Spartan Locke are equally as important. The new characters are well voiced and are incredibly charismatic and interesting. I’ve found myself just as excited to be playing as Locke as I was to step back into the Master Chief’s boots.

Halo 5’s use of two man fireteams is certainly interesting, however there are some issues if you’re playing with AI teammates. I’ve found the AI to be pretty terrible, especially when it comes to reviving downed teammates. The AI will drop everything to revive you if you call for help once downed, however this means they’ll just stand there allowing enemies to fill them with bullets in the process. As convenient as it is to have the chance to revive when downed instead of restarting at a checkpoint, it’s almost as frustrating to watch all three AI teammates die on top of you body during an intense gunfight.

I’m sure Halo 5’s four man teams shine when all three members are human players, however I haven’t had the chance to group up with anyone yet. I was disappointed to find that there is no matchmaking for co-op play, meaning you’ll have to coordinate with three other friends if you want to jump into co-op play. It would be nice if Halo 5 treated its co-op mode like Borderlands 2 or Diablo III where people could be matched into your game based on story progression at any given point.

So far I’ve enjoyed Halo 5 quite a bit. I can’t wait to get deeper into the story and also play some more multiplayer matches. I’m hoping to at least finish the story before Fallout 4 releases, however working 12 hours a day, six days a week leaves very little time for gaming. At the very least I should be able to finish the story during my next day off (Monday), before losing every bit of free time I have to Fallout 4!

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode One

Posted on October 19, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

I just finished episode one of Telltale’s newest adventure game, Minecraft: Story Mode. I was curious to see just how Telltale would go about telling a story in the Minecraft universe, considering Minecraft is essentially a wide open sandbox with no objectives or story of any sort.

Minecraft: Story Mode plays the same as the other Telltale games, with the player controlling a character while periodically choosing dialogue options or making split second decisions via QTE’s.

The game will surely appease fans of the Minecraft universe, as it wastes no time featuring just about every creature and object in the game. It’s characters will also occasionally reference crafting recipes for objects in the game, and several of the game’s puzzles center around crafting tables.

The story was interesting from the opening moments, and I quickly became attached to the characters. They are well voiced and they each have unique and interesting personalities. The game is lighthearted and comedic and will likely appeal to gamers young and old. Minecraft: Story Mode has an excellent soundtrack that I can’t wait to hear more of once Episode Two arrives.

Minecraft: Story Mode Episode One is out now on consoles, PC/Mac, iOS and Android. I definitely recommend checking it out whether you’re a Minecraft fan, a Telltale fan or both. You’ll surely be amused!

Destiny: The Taken King is a blast so far!

Posted on September 15, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Destiny’s third expansion The Taken King released today, a week after the 2.0 patch introduced a significant amount of changes to Destiny’s gameplay. I ordered the expansion and the $20 Collector’s Edition upgrade, and so far it seems like the purchase has been worth it.

I didn’t really play any Destiny after the 2.0 patch launched, so I was still level 32 when I jumped into the game earlier today. With the level cap raised to 40, I decided to it would be worth checking out the House of Wolves quests I had never finished in order to get some experience. Even though much of my time spent in Destiny since the Taken King release has been spent with older content, I still feel the impact the newest expansion has made. Earning experience instead of hoping to get the right loot to increase light level feels great. I also thoroughly enjoyed the House of Wolves quests as I finished the quest line and gained a handful of levels in the process. Not only was I leveling, but I also came across a ton of Taken King gear along the way (mostly greens and blues). It felt great to see so many engrams flying all over the place as I blasted my way through enemies.

Sorry for the quality of the screenshots, I was streaming to Windows 10 and couldn’t take any in game screenshots while doing so.

Once I did get to the Taken King content, it blew me away. The cut scenes, music and voice acting are all phenomenal. I had never experienced something so well produced during my time with Destiny previously, and I was literally in awe. I had also never been as excited while completing story content in Destiny.

The new locations are visually pleasing and the new enemies are a blast to fight. They introduce new mechanics that are exciting to encounter. I’ve only completed the first story quest and the Sunbreaker quest but both were an absolute blast. In fact, the Sunbreaker quest is my favorite Destiny story mission by far. Unleashing the power of the new subclass was incredibly thrilling alongside the epic music and relentless onslaught of enemies. I can’t wait to see what else the new subclass has to offer.

So far I’m loving The Taken King, and can’t wait to spend more time with it!

My time so far with Metal Gear Solid V

Posted on September 4, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

I’ve never really gotten into the Metal Gear series, however everything I saw about MGSV looked intriguing. I liked the idea of trying to sneak into bases and take out a target or rescue a hostage. I also liked that MGSV would provide players with plenty of firepower and the option to go in guns blazing if they so choose. This sounded appealing, because I’m terribly impatient and am horrible at stealth missions in games. I decided I’d purchase Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

I should note that my only experience with the Metal Gear series comes from watching someone play the first Metal Gear Solid back in 1998. I remember trying to play it, however my eleven year old self couldn’t handle the sneaking and I would always get angry when I got spotted and panic. I also played Metal Gear Solid 2 on the Xbox, but remember very little from it besides getting so frustrated with the underwater section that I nearly quit. I played around with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, but never really got too far in it.

Because of my lack of knowledge of the Metal Gear series, the opening of MGSV left me dumbfounded. Not only did I not know what was going on with the characters (or who any of them really were), but the incredibly strange nature of everything that was happening caught me off guard. I expected Metal Gear to be something of a serious game, not quite as sci-fi and nonsensical. I’m still uncertain if the opening sequence was some sort of dream or hallucination. Everything seemed so normal at the start and before I knew it I was being chased from characters out of a comic book movie. This all put me off, and I thought for awhile I may have made a mistake by trying to jump in with the fifth game.

The opening sequence is long, and the player has very little agency. I almost would have preferred to have it all be one long cutscene, because every time the game gives control to the player there’s quite literally nothing to do but look around or press forward. In fact, the opening bored me so much that by the end of it I had fallen asleep (I was playing after work) and I awoke to a mission complete screen. I’m not sure what I missed but it probably doesn’t matter.

Once I got into the game proper, I finally started to enjoy myself. The game looks great and controls very well. Everything Snake does feels just right. The sneaking isn’t too difficult, but I still always find myself getting spotted. Luckily once you’re spotted the game provides you with a reaction moment where you can save yourself by either pulling off a headshot with a tranquilizer round or by knocking the enemy out with a close quarters combat maneuver. I haven’t failed a mission yet, however I have been downed by a flurry of enemy fire, but was able to heal myself and get out of the situation. I’m not sure if there’s a limitation on healing, but when you’re badly injured you can hold ‘Y’ to get yourself back in the action. In this case I switched to a rifle and just blasted everyone dead before sprinting out of the complex and to the helicopter without ever turning back.

Shooting myself out of bad situations hasn’t always been helpful, however. I was on a side ops mission and ended up shooting the person I was supposed to extract, thus failing the mission. Luckily the game doesn’t greet you with a fail screen, but rather leaves you in the open world with a ‘side ops cancelled’ message.

I’m not quite certain how I should be managing the Mother Base, but I’ve been having a blast fultoning any knocked out enemy back to my base to be one of my new “employees”.

I’ve only completed two missions in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but I’m certainly looking forward to diving deeper into the game. I’m not sure if I’ll ever understand the game, but at least the gameplay is a blast!

A quick look at Pure Hold’em on the Xbox One

Posted on August 24, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

There’s finally a poker game on the Xbox One, with last week’s release of VoFoo Studio’s Pure Hold’em. The game sells for $19.99 and was developed by the studio that brought the realistic pool game, Pure Pool.

So far the game scratches the poker itch, and offers a great way to play poker from the couch. You can buy into online tables designed for varying skill levels, and there are also online tournaments, again segregated by skill level. You can play a high / low game once a day to try to bank more chips, however the game also offers in game purchases for those too impatient to try to earn a large enough stack to play with.

I’ve enjoyed the game so far, however I’ve occasionally run into instances in which I can’t get into any games. I’ll receive an error saying I can’t connect to the server when trying to join open tables or tournaments, most often in the Jacks league. It seems that you receive this error when the game can’t find any games for you to join, because I’ve been able to join games at higher stakes tables without any issue. As the player base grows hopefully it’ll be easier to find games. Until then there’s an offline mode with AI bots that seem to play well enough.

A look at Bridge Constructor on Xbox One and how to fix the screen

Posted on August 23, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

This past weekend the popular Bridge Constructor series finally arrived on consoles, with the first game in the series being released for $9.99 on the Xbox One.

In the game you’re put in charge of creating bridges, which may sound easy, but there’s a catch. You have a budget for each bridge, and each construction material has a price which increases with its sturdiness. As you progress through the levels the challenges become more difficult and you really have to analyze every detail about the bridge you’re constructing. Once you think you’re done you can send cars or trucks across the bridge to see how it holds up. You complete the level by creating a bridge under budget that withstands the traffic you send across. You can earn a higher score by using less material.

Bridge Constructor translates pretty well to the Xbox One, however this is one problem. The screen is not sized correctly by default, and there’s no in game setting to adjust it.

How to fix the screen size of Bridge Constructor on the Xbox One

As you can see in the image above the outer border of the screen is cut off. This would just be a minor annoyance, however once you’re in the game it cuts off your budget which is a game breaker.

It’s hard to build a bridge without knowing how much of your budget remains. So how do you fix it? For me I was able to fix it by disabling the overscan setting on my TV’s advanced video settings. Changing the picture from ‘wide’ to ‘normal’ didn’t work for me, but if your TV has an aspect button that may end up working for you.

Once I disabled overscan the game finally fit on the screen, however the colors ended up looking a little washed out. It’s a minor annoyance, and at least the game is playable, but it’s frustrating to have to re-enable the option when I’m done playing.

As you can see, disabling the overscan feature allows the game to fit onto my screen, but you can see the colors look a little off. It’ll work for now, but hopefully they patch in a fix soon!

Madden NFL 16 first impressions: An ugly start

Posted on August 20, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

EA Access subscribers on Xbox One can begin playing Madden NFL 16 today, for ten hours over the next five days. I downloaded Madden 16 this morning and just jumped into it for the first time.

It certainly has a great presentation, especially in the menus, however the initial load time was exceptionally long. It took a solid two minutes, if not longer, just to get through the title screen. The tutorial (a dramatized Super Bowl game between the Steelers and the Cardinals) is presented well, however the frame rate is terrible on the Xbox One. It really distracts from what should be an exciting, dramatic Super Bowl game. It’s like watching a game in slow motion at times, while the screen pixelates and the audio cuts in and out.

Outside of the tutorial the gameplay still seems a little awkward. There seems to be a sort of slow motion effect whenever a pass is thrown. This may be because of the new catching mechanics (where you can choose between a possession catch, a catch that favors a run after the catch, and an aggressive catch) but it really makes the game feel unnatural. There are also some frame rate stutters that are severely noticeable during passes, but also crop up before tackles and many other situations.

If all the stutters get worked out, Madden 16 will certainly be the best looking football game to date. There are some new camera shots that aim to replicate what you see on TV, and the crowds certainly feel more alive (they include female fans for the first time as well!).

I haven’t tried out any of the new modes yet, but from what I’ve seen from the core gameplay I’m not impressed. Hopefully things will get patched up before the official release date (August 25), otherwise I may end up sticking to Madden 15 for a little while longer.

How to play with more than one controller in Scrabble on Xbox One

Posted on August 5, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Scrabble was recently released on the Xbox One (part of the Hasbro Game Channel collection of games) and the game doesn’t exactly make it easy to figure out how to use more than one controller locally. When you’re setting up a game you can select whether you want AI or human players (up to four total), but by default it’s set to ‘share controller’ and there’s no way to change it.

In order for each player to use their own controller they first have to sign into an Xbox account. Once the player signs into a profile it’ll change from ‘share controller’ to ‘individual controllers’ and each player will be able to play the game using their own controller.

Hope this helps!

A quick look at Magic Duels on the Xbox One

Posted on August 5, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Magic Duels is a free to play, yet fully featured Magic The Gathering game which made its way to the Xbox One last week. The game features a single player campaign as well as a battle mode in which you can challenge AI or human opponents with your custom built decks in order to earn coins. The coins you earn can be used to purchase booster packs, or other upgrades such as converting cards to foil cards.

I’ve been casually interested in the Magic games in the past. I’ve played the 2014 and 2015 games (both of which required a purchase) but could never quite get hooked. Magic Duels certainly has a very slick presentation, however the gameplay feels sluggish and dated, especially when compared to Hearthstone. I’m sure comparing Magic to Hearthstone will offend Magic players, but Hearthstone is much easier to play and its card battles run smoother than Magic’s. There are way too many button prompts in the magic games. When your opponent plays a card the game expects you to look at it and press ‘A’. When your opponent attacks you’re expected to hit ‘A’ after every card attacks. The battles should just be able to play out smoothly, without all of the prompts slowing the game to an annoying crawl at times.

Magic Duels will certainly appeal to Magic and card battle enthusiasts, but those with a more casual interest in the genre will most likely be put off (especially for those who have played Hearthstone). Ultimately, Magic Duels has me hoping that Hearthstone someday makes its way to consoles. Sure the ideal way to play is on an iPad, but I wouldn’t mind playing a game or two on the Xbox One if it were an option.

Rare Replay is out today: 30 games for $30!

Posted on August 4, 2015 by GumballsPlaysGames

Are you looking to beef up your game collection for the Xbox One? How does thirty games for thirty dollars sound? If you want some serious bang for your buck, be sure to pick up Rare Replay for the Xbox One today!

Rare Replay was announced during Microsoft’s E3 press conference this summer and surprised just about everyone. The reception to the announcement was incredibly positive, especially after the price was announced. Considering most HD remakes or re-releases tend to sell for $60 while only including two or three titles, very few expected a collection of thirty games to be priced at half that.

Notable titles in the Rare Replay collection include Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Viva Piñata and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. The collection spans twenty five years featuring titles released between 1983 and 2008. Rare Replay also features over 10,000 achievement points, however it’s worth noting if you’ve previously earned achievements from the games released on the 360 you cannot double dip.

I’ve played very few of the titles featured in the Rare Replay collection so I’m excited to try out most of the games for the very first time. I’m currently downloading the games that aren’t bundled in the download of the collection itself and once they complete I’ll have to figure out which game to jump into first.

Are you going to check out the Rare Replay collection? Which of the games featured are your favorites? Which do you recommend I check out first?