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It's a better version of Fallout 4 set in space.

Loading screens are incredibly janky and jittery, not to mention the game takes forever to load even on an SSD.

Level 9 is stuck on an infinite loading screen even after several attempts. Come try this again later when the developers actually release this instead of whatever this early access stuff is.

Controller doesn't work

Final Fantasy XV is a very inconsistent game in its quality. Its initial 2016 release felt a lot like an early access video game disguised as a $60 AAA game. The game boasted gorgeous visuals as well as good characters, flashy looking combat, and a phenomenal sound track. However, the game was bogged down by several key problems. I will go through each major aspect of the game, talk briefly about its state during the game’s initial release, and whether or not the current release of the game addresses each respective problem.

Story:

Final Fantasy XV is yet another game with great lore and story that is unfortunately told rather poorly. The first major problem is that the game’s story requires watching the rather mediocre Kingsglaive movie to even understand key events that occur before / during the first 5 hours of the game. This is something that no amount of patches and DLCs will ever fix. Getting past that will net you a story that features a great cast of main characters, and a set of side characters with a lot of potential that is never fully realized. The game’s story focuses most of its attention on the 4 main characters and to great effect. However, every single supporting character suffers as a result. The supporting characters (all but the main villain, who’s a highlight of the game thankfully) get very limited screen time and disappear from the game for very inexplicable reasons. The story also initially had a handful of very bizarre plot holes that are mostly addressed in the DLC that is included in this rerelease of the game. Yet no amount of DLC will ever fix the fact that the game’s villain faction has no identity, that many major events are presented in laughable and bizarre ways, and that the game’s second half screams that the development team ran out of time and budget.

Gameplay:

FFXV is a traditional open world game for 2/3rd of is runtime. It’s also extremely theme-parky / MMO-like in its design. You go to a new hub, accept all the side quests that task you with either collecting a half-dozen of a generic item or kill a specific amount of monsters, and then you move on to the next zone that the main quest sends you towards. Rinse and repeat. It doesn’t help that the game’s side quests are the very definition of fetch-quests. There is absolutely no variety here. If you intend to complete a good amount of the side-content in the game, then expect to be constantly flipping through the fast travel menus as you will constantly find yourself zig-zagging through the map absent-mindedly fulfilling whatever forgettable objective you have to complete. Thankfully the game does contain a handful of good optional-dungeons to complete, although dungeons give rise to a major problem with this version of the game which we will go through in the performance section of this review.

The game’s combat system can often be satisfying to engage in largely thanks to amazing animations. However, before long you will discover that combat largely revolves around holding the attack button, holding the dodge button whenever the button prompt flashes on screen, and getting flailed around endlessly as every single enemy in the game is capable of stun-locking you into oblivion. The current version of the game does add a lot of quality of life features to the experience. You are now able to switch between all 4 party members mid combat, all with their own unique combat style carried over from the DLC, there’s a new combat system that involves using all the royal weapons you find throughout the game, although that won’t come into play until about 30-40 hours in, and you’re now able to accept up to 10 hunts at once, which saves up an amazing amount of time. There are still aspects of the gameplay that lack polish and some systems can use some trimming. For example, you’ll still find yourself jumping around endlessly while trying to interact with things because Square had the brilliant idea of using the same button for both jumping and interacting, and I am in disbelief that something as obvious as this problem never got patched, which is quite telling of the priorities the development team had in mind while making the game. There’s also simply a lot of tedium involved in travelling around the world, as even the act of fast travel involves a lot of tedious and long animations of the party getting into the vehicle slowly as if to intentionally aggravate you.

Graphics / Pefromance:

The main draw of the Windows edition of the game over the other platforms is obviously having the game run at a higher resolution / framerate / graphical fidelity. The game does indeed look a lot better than its consoles counterpart, and you can even enable HDR if you have a compatible display. The game also does run at framerates up to 120 fps if you got the rig for it. However, it turns out not a lot of people have got the rig capable of this task, or at least this is what Square would want you to believe. This game doesn’t run very well. It’s incredibly inconsistent in its performance. You could be using an i7 6700k overclocked with a GTX 1080 (which is what I use) and you’ll still get mixed results. Here’s what you can expect when playing this game: You’ll be running around in the world, fps in the mid 70’s 80’s, and the moment you enter combat, you’ll see that plummet down to 50s, 40s, and even mid 30s. When all it takes for the fps to take a nose-dive in the 30s is the moment a sword materializes when combat starts, that screams bad optimization. This is not even mentioning the bigger problem, and it’s the fact that the game crashes all the time. I’ve put in over 70 hours into the game, and the game crashed for me over 15-20 times. It’s absolutely outrageous. The game would be running buttery smooth and all of a sudden it’ll crash out of nowhere. This is usually not as big of a deal while roaming the open-world since you’re allowed to save whenever you want, but this turns into a huge problem during dungeons and long story quests, as those don’t allow you to save while you partake in them. Some of the optional dungeons and bosses in the game can take over 1-2 hours to complete, and the fact that the game could crash at any moment without you being able to save is a huge problem. It’s completely unacceptable. I have lost over 5 hours of progress due to random crashes, and at some points I almost lost the will to even finish the game.

Final Thoughts:

Final Fantasy XV is a decent game that could have been incredible. It features beautiful visuals, great looking combat, incredible music, and a likable cast of characters. However, it also features bland and generic open world gameplay design, an inconsistent story filled with plot holes and missed opportunities, and performs very poorly. If you’re really aching for an action RPG, you could do a lot worse. However, if you can afford to wait, then I reckon you’ll find this to be a much better game a few months down the road at a discounted price, after more patches come through, and when the modding tools are released.

Joined a game. Told guys on my team that this was my first game. First guy approached me and asked if I needed any help with reloading, to which I explained that I played a bit in the shooting range so I was familiar with the mechanics. Second guy came in and groped my special area to show appreciation.

All in all, a fantastically unique experience.

Ground Zeroes is a game that faced a lot of controvorsy for a variery of reasons when it came out on consoles back in March. Is it a prologue? Is it a demo? Is there enough there to warrant a purchase? Well, this question has three different answers depending on what type of person you are:

1) Are you a Metal Gear fan? If so, then this game is immediately worth a purchase. There isn't a lot of story in there, but it's all worth experiencing for yourself.

2) Are you only interested in MGSV, even though you've never played all of the previous Metal Gear games? Well, you should'nt worry then, because Ground Zeroes is a completely gameplay-driven experience after the initial 2 or so hours it'll take you to complete the main story mission.

3) Are you only interested in the main mission? If so, then this game is only worth it if you are okay with spending the money on a 2 hours worth of gameplay.

With that out of the way, it's worth mentioning that Ground Zeroes is a surprisingly fantastic PC port. The game always looked pretty on consoles, but the hardware-limitations kept it from reaching it's true height. Now, with sharper textures, much better draw-distance, AA, and shadows, and with the addition of depth-of-field, the game looks so much better.

Overall, if you're interested in this game, but not sure if it'll be worth it, then I'd recommend you get it anyways. What little story is there is of the highest quality, and the missions themselves are highly replayable.

Welcome back to the PC market, Kojima!

Burial at Sea offers a great experience that feels significantly different to Infinite. Its focus on stealth offers a great departure from the shooting-focused gameplay in Infinite, and the level design is excellent and offers a great incentive for exploration. The first episode of this two episodes DLC might be a bit on the short side, but the length feels perfect, and it never drags on. Just remember, this is a chapter that should only be experienced after completing Infinite, else you will ruin the big twist that happens at the end of Infinite.