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Score: 6.5/10 Code Vein, the new Souls-like game from Bandai Namco, is a bloody mess. Okay, so it's not THAT bad, but for a game that is getting such high scores on prestigious platforms like Steam, it really makes me scratch my head. In Code Vein, players take on the role of a Revenant, taking on a vampiric form that has been brought back to life by a parasite known as BOR. The Revenants need blood to survive and keep themselves from going crazy and turning into berzerking Lost Revenants. There's way more to the story if you're willing to sit through the agonizing cut scenes and molasses-paced dream sequences and comb through your memories in order to piece together what's going on. Me? Not so much. I skip every cutscene. And now you're all saying, "Well that's why you hate the game!" And that may be. But before you judge me, hear me out. I may be having such a tough time with the story because I am not much of an Anime fan, and for a game that has been nicknamed "Anime Souls" by its community, you may simply have to possess a love of Anime to get the most out of this title. But I promise you, I have practical complaints about the execution of this game. Like every good deliverer of criticism should do, I would like to start with the good things. The Good Controls The controls aren't too bad. For the most part, they mirror that of familiar Souls games so if you have any experience whatsoever, you will pick up on the controls very quickly. Aside from the sprint and attack buttons being different between the console versions of Code Vein and Dark Souls, you'll become accustomed to playing within a few minutes. Thankfully, Code Vein offers button remapping, so it honestly might be worth switching the controls to the Dark Souls/Bloodborne controls we all know and love. Music From the epic title screen organ music to the random encounter battles, Code Vein has some incredibly ear-pleasing soundtracks. The organ music will give you goosebumps! The combat music will amp you up and urge you to plunge into battle, screaming with sword in-hand! Code Vein's musical tracks are of cinema quality and should be in the mix for game soundtrack awards. Co-Op It seems like games these days just can't get certain things done right, even something as simple as cooperating with your friends. Code Vein does this masterfully and I want to kiss the feet of the person in charge of this decision. Unlike Dark Souls and Bloodborne where you need a special item or consumable to summon your friends, in Code Vein, you simply Send a Distress Signal and anyone Searching for a Distress Signal will be brought into your game. You can even put a friend password in so that you can easily find your chums. No more cryptic bell-ringing or writing on the ground with stones. Just meet up and play, for the love of Pete! The Not So Good Combat/Camera Angles Not ALL aspects of Code Vein's combat are bad. The Blood Code and Buffing mechanics are actually really innovative and feel fresh. Where the game begins to dip in quality, however, is in the consistent execution of these mechanics and the environments in which they come into play. Code Vein's combat can quickly turn into a hack n' slash free-for-all with very little skill needed to fight. You DO have to be careful, don't get me wrong. However, Code Vein is FAR more forgiving than it's uncle Dark Souls, so you're able to let your guard down a little more. In my opinion, that dilutes the overall experience. One of the reasons the Souls and Bloodborne games are so good is because they constantly tests your ability to think, improvise, adapt, and become a better fighter BECAUSE you have been careful and are learning. Code Vein combat is just boring unless you're willing to grind, unlock every Blood Code and Gift, and enjoy endlessly mixing and matching fighting styles through trial and error. Items/Menu/Map One of Code Vein's biggest weaknesses is its UI. The menu is a bit of a mess and features items you've acquired through your journey that are scattered across the screen, all looking oddly familiar to one another. Seriously, every item's icon is made up of three lines in any given direction and an arrow of some sort. They barely even change the colors of said items. It's near impossible to quickly spot the difference between them to the point that I have given up even trying. I don't even look at my items on-hand. In Dark Souls and Bloodborne, items were intentionally ambiguous yet still enticing enough in design to make you want to experiment with them. The navigation map in Code Vein....ugh....is by far one of the worst maps I have ever seen in a video game. Your footsteps leave markings as you travel the areas, but as the game progresses, the areas become more and more enigmatic, (more on that in the next section) making your markings more of a distraction than any kind of welcomed aid. And for whatever reason, you're not able to zoom in and out on the map, place markers, or view any kind of map legend. So good luck trying to recall where you've been, especially in environments that all look the same. Which leads me to... Environments/Navigation The environments in Code Vein are by far THE WORST part about the game. At later stages, navigating the environments makes the game almost unplayable. The environments are bland, boring, muddy, and ALL LOOK THE SAME!!! In the Cathedral of Blood area, the ENTIRE cathedral, including walls, floor, sky, everything... all of it is white. It looks like someone just ran out of time and couldn't texture or color the environment. That, combined with the fact that it's one of the longest, most maze-like areas in the game, makes the idea of wanting to progress any further worse than the idea of getting out of bed on a Monday. I cannot say enough about how bad these environments are laid out. You end up spending most of your playthrough just wandering in circles, hoping to stumble across the one correct ladder that leads to the exit out of the 26 ladders you've already climbed. For me, this took the game from earning nearly a 8 or 9 and dropped it below a 7 score. Your game environments should present the players with obstacles, puzzles, and challenges. They should not, however, directly inhibit your player's ability to play your game normally. Dark Souls and Bloodborne have perplexing environments, but they're thematically built into the gameplay and world itself. They didn't just create four walls and a room for players to run around in. There's attention to detail in those games, and Code Vein came along to suck the lifeblood from that detail, leaving us with an uncauterized wound of mediocre gameplay.

Score: 9/10 With some leftover Christmas money, I bit the virtual bullet and purchased myself a Playstation VR bundle. The bundle came with Everybody's Golf VR, which I still have yet to play, and Blood & Truth, a high-octane action FPS developed by SIE London Studio. Like most people probably felt, I too felt highly suspicious of a VR FPS game, especially one that came for free with a bundle. But I was desperate to see for myself the true power of the Playstation VR. I was not disappointed. Blood & Truth opens up with you sitting in a makeshift interrogation room of some unknown location. Before long a mysterious dude walks in, displaying all of the edgy detective tropes that come along with your favorite action movies. The ambiguity of the scene lures you right in and you are hooked from the start! It's not long before you're thrown into a flashback scene of you, the player, now taking on the role of Ryan Marks, whose task is to kill anyone related to a rival crime boss that's been harassing his family. That was my takeaway, at least. Blood & Truth's storyline is actually pretty solid. Gameplay does capitalize on many of the sequences you'd expect to see in any action movie such as car chases, rooftop jumping, and plenty of gunplay. Of course, no action movie is complete without an attack helicopter, and there's plenty of that too! The Good Gunplay Blood & Truth's gunplay is, thankfully, the absolute best part of the whole experience. This is a huge plus, obviously, because the developers would've wanted players to feel like they have fluid control of their guns. I've fired a few different types of guns in real life, and Blood & Truth does an exceptional job making the guns feel natural and intuitive. In game, without even being told I could do it, I flicked my wrist while holding my double-barrel shotgun to snap it closed after reloading. It worked. Same with the six-shooter. From having to take the magazine from your chest and load it into the gun, to looking down the iron sights to make your shots more accurate, everything feels tight and purposeful. Musical Score A game is only as good as its musical score, and Blood & Truth does not disappoint. From the epic, Mission Impossible-esque opening credits, to the edge-of-your-seat moments of climbing, jumping and shooting, your ears will be accompanied by a satisfying symphony, red carpeting you straight into the action! Little Details I was absolutely blown away by the attention to detail in this game. Find a vaping pen, put it to your mouth, take a real-life breath, then a real-life exhale, and the in-game character will vape. Hands full of guns but you need to throw a grenade? No problem. Bring the grenade to your mouth and pull the pin out with your teeth. The game is absolutely chalk-full of nuanced details like this. I'll let you explore some on your own. The Not So Good Controls At the end of the day, Blood & Truth's controls work... most of the time. Because there's no physical representation of your guns and equipment, you need to draw your gun from your virtual holster and take your ammo from your virtual ammo pouch. This does not always work out as planned. Sometimes your gun gets gummed up on the edge of the screen and you can't aim properly. Sometimes you think you put the magazine in the gun but then it just hilariously falls to the floor while gangsters continue to Swiss cheese you with assault rifles. And while it might feel natural to do so, don't ever, EVER hold a gun with both hands, especially an assault rifle. I went through 95% of the game using every gun with just one hand and it was perfectly fine. Gripping the gun with both hands makes the task of accurately aiming a near impossible one. It's unavoidable in some cases, however. Just make the best of it if you can. Blood & Truth's mild flaws are heavily suppressed by its greatness in gameplay and story. {MILD SPOILER COMING} Blood & Truth ends on an absolutely unfair cliffhanger, one that will have you begging for me. {MILD SPOILER END} The SIE London team has set the bar WAY high, and I can't wait to see what they do next. The commitment to purchasing a Playstation VR is still a bit out of reach for most people these days, and with Playstation 5 just around the corner, there will be a lot of questions surrounding the future of VR for Sony. But if Blood & Truth is any indicator of what we can expect for the future of VR Action games, you are not going to want to miss out. If you get the chance to even just play the 20- minute opening sequence, treat yourself to it. You won't regret it.

Score 10/10 Like many of you reading this, I too have been obsessed with Santa Monica Studios' latest epic reboot of God of War for the PS4. I’ve always been a fan of the franchise and when I saw they were giving it a new chapter, I was all in. But I was skeptical. The game looked drastically different from its predecessors so I was rightfully nervous. I’ve always considered Naughty Dog’s "The Last of Us" my favorite game of all time, however, God of War was able to effortlessly topple Joel and Ellie from their post-apocalyptic thrones and boldly step into my 1st place position until further notice. I found myself strangely impacted by the emotion that this new game presented since other God of War games were strictly about body count and how many trolls you could decapitate with your bare hands. The opening scene in the new game, however, shows us a pensive Kratos, much more tamed than in his former life, as you’re prompted by the game to cut down the final tree that will be used to burn the body of his recently deceased wife. It’s not long after this that you are introduced to Atreus, Kratos' son, also known as “Boy,” which Kratos repeatedly calls him throughout the game. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus is one that is tangible and relatable. At the opening of the story, Kratos is a god with a tortured past, one which he has chosen to keep secret from Atreus. And now, with the passing of his wife, Kratos is wondering how on earth he will keep a curious boy from discovering the truth. Atreus' inquisitiveness is revealed throughout the game as you see him repeatedly ask his father direct questions, only to have Kratos respond with silence or a succinct grunt at best. To me, this God of War story is less about the decapitations, especially since this is the least violent GoW game yet, and more about discovering the meaning of the parent-to-child, child-to-parent relationship. It's no secret by now, we've all seen the memes where Kratos is "forgetting" Atreus' name and simply calling him "Boy" over and over again. It's a bizarre thing to witness at first, but I later considered it a genius play by the writers of the game. By Kratos calling Atreus "Boy," he's objectifying him, making it so he does not have to emotionally connect to his son. It's plain to see that Kratos simply doesn't know how to relate to Atreus, and quite possibly has a hard time respecting him as an independent, thinking person. Atreus obviously responds by trying to continually live up to the impossible standards of his god father, not knowing that he himself is part god. Kratos continues to dismiss Atreus' pursuit for knowledge, occasionally giving him clues here and there, but without ever disclosing the whole truth. Understandably, Atreus becomes frustrated when he realizes that his father is not telling him everything. It's not until one scene in particular where Atreus saves Kratos' life when Kratos begins to see how neglectful he's been of his "boy" and realizes how much this "boy" has grown since the journey began. The relationship between Kratos and Atreus is all-too-familiar for some of us; a parent who made mistakes, doesn't know how to affectionately love their child, yet still wants them to be better than they were in life. This is spelled out very clearly in GoW during a moment where Athena appears to Kratos and says, "You will always be a monster" and Kratos simply replies, "I know." It's in these moments, when Kratos is alone, plagued by his haunted mind, that we truly see that this once violent, barbaric god-slayer has a very human heart. It's not until much later in the game when Kratos very noticeably calls Atreus "Son" for the first and only time. This striking shift would not have been so apparent had Atreus not been referred to as "Boy" the entire time. To me, this beautifully illustrates that Kratos has come full circle. He's confessed his sins, he's faced his demons, and he's allowed himself to be a vulnerable father in the eyes of his son. Letting Atreus bear the truth and giving him the opportunity to help his father carry the burden is indeed an occasion that will tug on your heartstrings for days to come. It's in that precious moment when the player realizes that lessons can always be learned, regardless of your god-like status.

I wrote a piece a few weeks ago about balancing games for movement. This time I want to focus on completion time. Let me tell you; there is nothing more humiliating than a bunch of people who have set aside time to play test your board game that you said would only take an hour, then witnessing as they casually check their watch now that your game is taking way longer than it should! This happened to me numerous times. When a game designer (me) feels the need to shut down playing his own game because he/she can sense people are getting bored and checking out, you know you have a GIANT red flag. I mentioned this before, but it's absolutely critical that you nail down your game time. Bottom line is, unless you have the next Monopoly, and let's be honest, who really wants to play Monopoly, your game really shouldn't take more than 120 minutes to complete. This should include setup and rule reading. I don't make the rules, so you can do whatever you want. Just make sure that your game is engaging enough to merit a longer play time. And don't be too proud to make cuts where you need to. As I always say, it's better to put the work in and even scrap the whole project if it means you'll get a better end result. #lessons #monopoly #gamedesign #wintermoongames #games #boardgames #tabletop #balancing #pandemoniumestate #time #patience

I don't know about you, but I sometimes could use a break from the instant yet temporary satisfaction we get in life. Sure, it's nice to have modern conveniences, don't get me wrong. Having info and answers promptly available is wonderful most of the time. But there are just certain things that will not come instantly, no matter how hard we try to force it. Some of those things may include, relationships, game design, saving money, game design, finishing that important project, and even game design! Did I mention game design? When I first started working on Pandemonium Estate back in 2012, I worked on the game for only about six months before deciding that it was a good idea to launch on Kickstarter. It wasn't. And those of you who have been following my story, know how that whole thing panned out. Since I was a kid, I have always gotten my hopes so high for things, even if it wasn't guaranteed to come to fruition. As we all know, life isn't fair, and I would be hugely disappointed most of the time when things didn't end the way I had expected them to. This mindset didn't change, even when I was working on my first board game, until recently. About a month ago, I had finished the final version (after about 10 versions) of my game's 43 item cards! I was stoked! I spent hours upon hours refining each card, reading them over and over again just to make sure that everything was perfect! I even spent 45 minutes on ONE CARD! That was a brutal moment. I got all of the cards exported from Photoshop, uploaded them to the printer website and..... I scrapped the entire thing... Ok, so it wasn't that impulsive. I let the cards sit there for a few days in the print queue without "submitting" them for print. I wasn't happy with them. Something just wasn't right. I dreaded the thought. I knew that the last thing I wanted to do was redo ALL of the cards again. But I knew that I wouldn't be happy unless I did. So I went in and deleted them from the print queue, went back to Photoshop, and started over. My point is, DO. NOT. SETTLE. DO NOT SETTLE on a mediocre person to marry, DO NOT SETTLE for a job that's just getting you by. DO NOT SETTLE when you think something is "passable." And DO NOT SETTLE on a design for your game that you are not COMPLETELY satisfied with! If you send something out for print that you know probably shouldn't have gone to print, then you only have yourself to blame. You'll finish when you're finished. Put the work in and make it perfect. It will be worth the wait. #indie #gaming #boardgames #pandemoniumestate #instantgratification #patience #tabletop #lessons #kickstarterlessons #photoshop #cards

I started play testing Pandemonium Estate long before it was even ready to be play tested. I was eager to play because thought I nailed the mechanics of the game on my first try. I had a group of my good friends play the game which, at the time, was very roughly cut out from white board and used paper cards. No shame there, all games start somewhere. I remember how excited I was after the play test, but I couldn't have been further from completion. Once I wasn't playing the game with my understanding and forgiving group of friends, I started taking it to various game stores to be tested by strangers. That's where things got tough. At this point, I had only been working on the game for about six months, so the prototype was still quite disheveled, but I was proud of it. And I knew I had a good game....or did I? When you create anything and then have someone give you feedback, there's always that initial sting when they tell you that it's not as good as you thought it was. We have a special connection to the things we create. As created creators, we are invested deeply in our concepts and take it very personally when someone is apathetic. However, being able to overcome your ego and take the criticism will carry you a long way with game design. The creative process in a nutshell. You need to quickly learn what is constructive criticism, and what is just an opinion. Pandemonium Estate is a take on traditional "Roll & Move" style games, therefore, the elitist nerd who only plays 5-hour war games with miniatures probably isn't going to enjoy my game. The key is finding people to play test your game who play all sorts of games, and are open-minded enough to look at it objectively and give you good feedback about the mechanics, theme, and overall enjoyment. It's not so much the criticism that is discouraging, it's the judgemental picking apart from opinionated and biased gamers. Once you are able to sort through the judgement and consider the criticism, things become a lot easier. The best tip I can give you is this; let people say whatever it is they're going to say and acknowledge their feelings. Even if they're completely wrong and you don't understand where they're coming from at all! Do not argue with people's opinions of your game or try to defend why or why you didn't do something unless you're asked directly. Write everything down or take mental note, then go over all of it later. Disregard any passed judgement on your game that doesn't fit your market or theme, then sort through the criticism and consider applying changes to your game. #pandemoniumestate #gaming #boardgames #criticism #playtesting #tabletop #wintermoongames

As a game designer, I think it's important to at least play other games. For a while I didn't want the influence of other games to impact how I designed games, but you can learn a lot just from playing other games and familiarizing yourself with common concepts. Not only tips and tricks for making your game more relevant, but also, at times, learning what not to do. In the early stages of play testing Pandemonium Estate, one of the reoccurring flaws was that the game just went on far too long. Too long to the point that we would have to stop playing nearly 3 hours in because people were just exhausted and wanted it to end! Not only was this embarrassing, but it was actually a huge eye-opener and made me realize that my game needed some serious overhauls. Me, during some nights of game design. I recently played the board game, Last Friday by Ares Games. A game where you play as five campers running away from a maniac machete killer that is controlled by another player. Sounds like a great concept, and I was super excited to play it. But then I quickly realized, after finally getting a chance to play with a decent group, was that the game was greatly unbalanced when it came to movement. Now I don't write this post to pick apart any particular designer or publisher. These are simply my observations. I got a lot of criticism on Pandemonium Estate when it came to movement. Since Pandemonium Estate is inspired by traditional "Roll & Move" style games, balancing movement is critical, and we definitely had our fair share of problems. In Last Friday, the game board is HUGE. And the killer can sometimes move drastically further than the campers. The campers can only move 1-2 spaces on their turn along the non-numbered circles, and if you look at the picture below, you can see just how short of a distance that is in comparison to the board size. The killer can move along numbered spaces only, skipping blank white dots. What I'm driving at is the movement issues in this game significantly slowed down the excitement and made the majority of our turns feel pointless. I raise this point because this is EXACTLY what I encountered during play tests of Pandemonium Estate, and I do not understand how this slipped through the cracks when the designers play tested. Having a game where people just lose interest and feel like they would rather whack themselves with a dead fish instead of finishing the game is a serious red flag that it's probably time to go back to the drawing board! My advice is this; do not settle. I know that you're eager to get your game finished but trust me...use your noggin and be patient and don't force something to be finished if it's still needing to cook. Let it cook thoroughly! It will be worth the wait. Speaking specifically to movement, what are your favorite ways to "move" or progress through a game? Do you prefer dice movement, having a certain amount of actions per turn, or some other form? Let me know what you think in the comments! #lastfridaygame #boardgames #aresgames #gaming #gamedesign #movement #wintermoongames #balancing