S3E15 - A Refined Playlist

In this episode we are going to discuss the newly released titles of Gears 5 and Borderlands 3 and how they have stuck by the “if it is not broke don’t fix it” mentality.  We will also talk about two games that have been out for a while but we have just recently been playing. Finally, we will wrap up the episode talking about the fantastic news of the Super Nintendo addition that was added to the Nintendo Switch Online Catalog!     Show Notes Gears 5 Picks up right where Gears 4 left off  Make senses but it is the best looking Gears game to date Every part of the game has been finessed Hits your right in the feels - right from the get-go The new addition to have someone play the support class is nice and provides a brand new way for co-op to be played The story keeps you engaged throughout when some things happened that will leave you shaken story impact wise They definitely are “gearing” up for a 6  Borderland 3 Mayhem has begun! Can say right off the bat that anyone looking for something “new” “game-defining” will be disappointed BUT anyone looking for more Borderlands games played that has been even more refined will be in for the best Borderlands game to date. The loot is never-ending, a lot of QOL added…..though some could still be needed but are minor Probably the most I have been engaged to the story of any of the main Borderlands games The dynamic level scaling for co-op is amazing and allows the co-op to be even better as you don’t have to worry about out leveling a friend On the co-op note the unique loot mode “Cooperative” is what Borderlands has needed for a while Elder Scrolls Online The Positives ESO is a typical MMORPG and tries to give you that experience as best it can This, however, is not a free-roaming exploration zone-based progression game like Skyrim was and struggles a bit in piecing its story together LORE - the game is deeply rooted in the world of storytelling and finding out about the world of Tamriel is fun!  The game systems, unfortunately, don’t compliment the story enough for me to stay engaged. The buggy, broken systems take away from the experience. The game has a guided epic story with over 100 hours of main story content to play through.  That’s a lot of story to get through but if you are willing to hang on and grind through the content, I think the story delivers a very nice experience! I think the world quests as a whole do a decent job of capturing the Elder Scrolls experience, as well as the MMO experience.  This is all paired and made more bearable because of the epic soundtrack! CRAFTINGOne of my favorite aspects of the MMO genre and ESO does a brilliant job on it’s crafting system! It does have its downsides as the resources needed for crafting, does require a large “Bag, Vault, and Storage Space” but is manageable  Even though they do a good job overall, this system still has a lot of features that needed to be better to enjoy it! Let’s talk big adventure and big story for a moment The Negatives A search bar for ingredients or materials when inside a vault or storage area There is absolutely no way to sell your resources except through “Hocking” items in world chat, or at a “Guild” store Syncing with other players and timing of events such as helping other players out in quests seems to be a challenge most of the time. The multi-player gameplay is “Lazy” feeling as once you do get synced up it doesn’t seem to be much of a challenge to defeat enemies.  Overall the game was too disconnected for me to really enjoy overall, even though I love MMO’s and I love the grind this one wasn’t for me The game overall has some of the most annoying buggy systems I’ve ever seen Finding a guild isn’t the easiest process by any means GOLD SPAMMERS, they exist in every MMO and it will always be a negative impact on someone's experience The game, in general, looks pretty terrible! Between the drab world landscapes, and details it makes for a pretty lackluster experience.   The combat mechanics are very