They sometimes say that it’s “better late than never,” but with Christmas swiftly approaching and moms, boyfriends, and sisters tired of dealing with crowds and malls and your disapproval of every gift (“Shadow of Mordor, AGAIN?”), gift cards are the best way to go–ESPECIALLY for the lot of quality video games from this past year.
No single female or male could ever have the time to play them all, and, over at the Holy Clergy of Cool, we try our best to consume as many hours in as many games as possible. With that said, here are a pair of last-minute shopping ideas or potential post-Christmas gift ideas for your video game reading pleasure.
Feliz Navidad!
RAINBOW SIX SIEGE
@OffTheGeekEnd
Tom Clancy had written many books over the years, one of which was titled Rainbow Six, about an international counter-terrorist unit named “Rainbow”. RS was the ninth book he wrote and is tenth in chronological order. The book spawned several games and expansions, with the most popular being Rainbow Six Vegas and Vegas 2. The latest release, Rainbow Six Siege is the heart of this review and takes a slightly different approach to the game series. While it still represents the counter-terrorist unit, the gameplay has shifted from a singleplayer game with multiplayer mode to a purely multiplayer game…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=554XiLSZZeA
Continuing from previous games, Siege includes the “Terrorist Hunt” mode in which you go up against waves of enemy AI in terrorist/counter-terrorist situations. This can be played solo in “Lonewolf” mode or with others online in a 5 v AI co-operative style gameplay. If you prefer multiplayer with only humans, there is a 5 v 5 multiplayer mode as well, where teams take turns being the terrorists and counter-terrorists. And while the game does lack a singleplayer story mode, it does have mode called “Situations” where you play solo, completing various scenarios on your own. The lack of singleplayer is definitely a sad decision, as I was hoping to be able to play through that when I needed a break from the multiplayer side. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to a narrative and watch a story unfold.
Much like the majority of multiplayer games, there is a progression system in Siege; as you play you gain experience and “renown” points. As you complete Situations, Daily Challenges, or play a match, you gain renown points good towards unlocking operators, skins, and weapon modifications.
- Whether you win or lose a match, you will earn renown, but be careful with your gunfire, as killing teammates will negatively impact your renown earnings. While the skins are purely a cosmetic change to your weapons, the operators give you different load-outs to choose from during matches. Early on it felt like I was the super-noob, cannon-fodder, the red-shirt of my team, as the base operator isn’t very strong and has lower-end weapon/specialty choices. But power through it and you’ll be rewarded with enough renown points to pick up your first operator. Choose carefully though and look through all the types and load-outs before picking one, as they all offer different styles to help your team complete the objective.
- The weapon modifications offer ways to customize your arsenal, helping your game be a bit tighter and more precise. Options you can find consist of varying scopes and sights, grips, and muzzle attachments — nothing too crazy to overly affect gameplay and turn Siege into a play-to-win situation, but nice enough to help make things just a slight bit easier. As I mentioned before you can also earn renown points by completing the Situations or even the practice section, which both also give the benefit of helping you become familiar with the game.
Each mode also has a few different difficulty levels ranging from normal to realistic. I preferred Realistic, as it is rather true to its name. Weapon hits give more damage and so require less shots, and the HUD disables several helper features such as teammate outlines, grenade indicators, reload indicators, hit confirmation and more. For this Saint, it’s the true way to play the game. That said, I did die more often than on normal mode, but the feel of the matches is a lot better and people tend to play more as a team. Even without mics I found teammates were working together just through motion in the game and helping each other set up barricades and taking proper positions. No one was trying to be the hero.
I’ve been enjoying the game despite the lack of single-player and the sometimes frustrating matches of constant loss. Rainbow Six Siege plays like a more realistic version of Counter Strike. Not once did I have to deal with server loads of people bunny-hopping around the map or hearing stories of their adventures with my mom. It’s a welcome change. And the graphics and physics are a treat. The scenery and characters are on par with today’s games and weapons are detailed. And, heck, if you want to blow up particle-board– plant an explosive, destroy the wall and take the new route. And while not everything you would expect can or broken through, there are plenty of walls and floors where it is possible, preventing people from just camping out all safe and sound in a corner.
To say the least, I’m still finding myself playing the game alongside Battlefront and Halo V. It’s a bit slow on loading and is often slow to match up with teammates, but it holds up as a solid multiplayer game. That said I can’t really recommend paying the initial $60 price tag, but if you are a fan of the Counter Strike series or the multiplayer side of Rainbow Six games, it’s worth paying at least a cool $30-40.
RISE OF THE TOMB RAIDER
By now, you’ve likely already heard about how good this game is. Some of you may even have purchased a new Xbox One based on Rise‘s rave reviews and/or early exclusivity. And, while it’s going to be tough for a game only available on one system to compete for Game of the Year with the Triple A behemoths that be Metal Gear Solid V, Fallout 4 (p.s. that title, a X-Mas vacation and late review code are the chief reasons for this late review) and Witcher 3, Lara Croft’s first original next-gen archaeological adventure is a unequivocal Top 5 release.
Graphics aside, which are some of the very best on the Xbone to date (much in thanks to Crystal Dynamics’ keen attention to environmental detail and subtle human movement), Rise of the Tomb Raider improves and expands on what Lara was primarily known for far before Brad Pitt’s ol’ lady strapped on those boots and twin pistol holsters: tomb raiding. Oh yeah — this Lara has a lot of caves to explore in Rise, multiple passages and endless artificts to peruse, in addition to the Max Paynesque 3rd-person cover-based shooting sensibility of the reboot. While Rise‘s expanded subterranean exploration doesn’t prevent Lara from playing yet another grenade-tossing, modern day female Rambo, the combination of puzzle-solving and high-octane, adrenaline-inducing combat provides, nonethless, an addicting (and often heart-wrenching) adventure.
For a game that has a lot more to do with Raiders of the Lost Ark than Dragon Age: Inquisition, it sure is massive. There’s enough checkpoints to visit and things to do on the map that should last you a whole winter. Those expecting to “quickly beat this game on the rare couple days off between Fallout” are sadly mistaken. Even if you try to stick to the 15-hour main story, there’s no doubt you’re going to enjoy too much of everything else you saw mentioned earlier — as exploring is at the heart of this Tomb Raider’s Rise.
What also separates this sequel from 2013’s reboot is the amount of occult mysticism used in the story. Lara moves on from confronting a man in the last game who thought he was God to, in this title, God himself. OK, maybe not exactly the big man upstairs, but at least for the search of a beyond powerful item of Indiana Jones measures that can possibly free the world of evil domination; or at the very least, give Lara the answers about her father than she needs.
To go about this environmentally terrential and deeply evocative expedition, Lara (the ever brilliant Camilla Luddington) will use three sets of skills at her disposal: hunting, brawling, surviving. These sets become trees to which players choose, so you can build Lara into the person you want her to be. If you focus clearly on survival, you might require a lot more stealth than someone who, say, chooses Lara to pick a skill that allows multiple arrow shots, or extended ammo. Another player might enjoy climbing all of the rocky cliffs and, relying strictly on nature, using animal loot to survive. Either way, environmental kills will become something of a habit and all of the game’s challenging — but never frustrating! — side missions are awesome (much like Witcher 3) and fully worth exploring, even on more than one occasion.
Fare warning: Firefights in ROTTR are really easy on the Normal difficulty. She mind as well be called Lara Castle: Punishergirl. But if you’re playing the game for more than just the “Call of Duty experience”, that setting is suitable enough for all of the sequel’s other aspects. This Lara is tired and scarred, yet calm and uplifting, so no matter which way you to choose to play (bullets or berries), you’re in for one hell of a treat.
And it’s stunning, viciously fuckin’ stunning.
