Top 5: Best Villains

Here's my second Top 5: Top 5 Best Video Game Villains. But first, this one has some rules:

Villains will be judged based off of:
1: Ambitions. What they were trying to achieve.
2: Achievements. How close they got to their goal.
3: Plan. How solid their plan was, i.e. could it have worked, was it even realistic.
4: Entertainment Value. How entertaining they are to the player. Funny and memorable is better, boring, mostly silent, or cliched are not (sorry Bowser).
There is also no rule in any of my Top 5s that bans multiple entries from one franchise, this is the first time that will show up.

With that out of the way, let's begin!

5. General Knoxx (Borderlands)

In 5th place is the General of the Crimson Lance in the 3rd DLC of the game. He is sent to Pandora to regain control of the planet and kill the Vault Hunters. He succeeds in regaining control over a small amount, and whether or not he could have gotten more is unpredictable (but he's probably already beat Commandant Steele). His strongest point is entertainment value, as he contacts the player often, remarking on recent events in a very calm and friendly manner (calling the player "Mate" and being hostile toward most other Crimson Lance), and when he's found, he is about to kill himself with a comically large number of weapons. His constant conflicts with the Admiral of the Crimson Lance (who's five years old) continuously point out that he doesn't want to even be on Pandora, and his success in spite of that just furthers him as a great villain.

4. Dr. Nefarious (Ratchet and Clank Series)

4th place is the mad scientist and main villain of the Ratchet and Clank series: Dr. Nefarious. His original main goal was to turn everything living in the galaxy into robots and rule over them, although since then he has degraded into mostly exacting revenge. But, he failed at both (so far), and made himself look like a complete fool while doing it. However, despite usually being ridiculous, his plans to accomplish these goals could have actually worked, had Ratchet and Clank not been there (since everyone else is completely incompetent, just look at your team of allies in the third game). This is especially true considering that Dr. Nefarious' actual archenemy is Captain Qwark, the idiot from the first two games who can't do anything helpful, but somehow manages to not die in the process. Nefarious can be an unintentionally funny villain, with his brain often breaking down and playing soap opera. The player also sees him quite a lot, as the game shows what he and his allies are doing in cutscenes, usually while Ratchet and Clank are in-between planets (levels).

3. GLaDOS (Portal and Portal 2)

Here is the power-mad AI running Aperture Science while all of the humans supposed to be running it are dead (not that she's going to tell you that). GLaDOS' goal is to kill all free humans in her facility (aka you), and she failed. Twice. She tries to achieve that goal by putting you through a gauntlet of increasingly difficult puzzles while offering you cake, although a better plan would be to have you go through the gauntlet expecting you to survive and then poison the cake. However, she mocks and/or lies to you the entire time in a somewhat monotone voice, often being very sarcastic and insulting you in creative ways, such as "Don't let that 'horrible person' thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep."

2. Handsome Jack (Borderlands Series)

Meet Handsome Jack, also known as "the god****ed HERO of Pandora" and "a mass-murdering megalomaniac". He is the president of the Hyperion corporation and the self-proclaimed dictator of the planet Pandora, with a simple goal: kill everyone. He tries to kill everyone on Pandora that doesn't work for him so he can become even richer in various way, and since it's assumed that he has already killed a lot of people by the time the game starts, we can assume his plan would have worked had the godlike Vault Hunter(s) the player controls not arrived. However, his best point is in entertainment, as he calls you throughout the game to taunt and insult you, and in the process, shows that he is emotionally unstable and generally insane, such as when you murder his __________ and his ________, as well as when he has his ___________ killed (spoilers). Regardless of whether his choices are right or wrong (the Pre-Sequel shows that his actions might have been justified), he is a great villain who is only surpassed by the #1 spot on this list.

1. The Joker (Batman: Arkham Series)

The Joker is probably the only villain who could be at the top of this list. He simply does everything right. Joker's only goals are to cause chaos and kill people, and he regularly succeeds at both. The best part about him, however, is that he does it all with a smile on his face, regularly saying and doing things that are genuinely funny, although most of those things are somehow insulting or threatening to someone in the game. His morbid sense of humor can be entertaining, just as much as him killing the NPCs that, to be honest, we probably didn't care about and/or expected to die.

Top 5: Annoying Boss Fights

Here we are with my first Top 5; Top 5 Annoying Boss Fights. Starting with...

5. The Beast/ Lucy Kuo (Infamous 2)

Starting the list is the boss fight near the end of the good path that puts you up against the main antagonist of the series (up to this game) the Beast, who has help from your former ally Lucy Kuo. This is the only fight in the series so far in which you must fight two fully-fledged Conduits at once. You start the fight on the roof of a short building, which you will quickly die if you stay on since once the Beast loses a certain amount of health (which he has ALOT of) he will start using black hole attacks, which will launch you into the air and suck you into his hand, where you will almost certainly die. This restricts you to certain taller buildings, or otherwise just standing behind something (which prevents you from shooting him). Kuo is a bit simpler in that she has much less health and her attacks are pretty weak. However, fighting her can force you out of cover, letting the Beast kill you. Even worse, she doesn't die. If you defeat her, she will just respawn soon after, and the fight doesn't end until you defeat the Beast.

4. Mr. Eye (Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus)

Mr. Eye is the final boss and arguably the main antagonist of the game. When he's actually fought, you're on a small platform hovering in the middle of a very large city. Mr. Eye himself isn't particularly dangerous, but the platform is. Many of his attacks restrict where you can be on the platform, and he occasionally flips the platform upside down, which is supposed to be survivable but disorienting, but if you're standing on the wrong spot you'll just fall off and die. His tendency to knock you off the platform and his high health will cause you to repeat the fight a lot, hoping that you don't fall off and die next time.

3. Audran (Shadowrun: Dragonfall)

Audran is the final boss of the game,  and although some circumstances of the fight change depending on your choices, the basics of the fight will not. Once you enter the battle arena (after being given a chance to heal and restock from the gauntlet that led up to this) you have roughly 10 turns to kill him, take his key, and use it on a control panel to stop the main villain's plan. I cannot emphasize enough how problematic this countdown timer is. Aurdan has a lot of health, like most bosses, is heavily armored, and has a gun that will rip apart anyone in range of it. Even worse, he has plenty of backup who can hurt you badly too, including 2 mages who will cast spells on Audran that almost completely negate any damage you do to him until the mages are killed.

2. The Golem (The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon)

You actually fight this guy twice in the game, once in the Catacombs at the start, then later in the city Warfang. He is essentially the classic giant monster that climbs buildings and tries to crush you and make you feel small. His difficulty comes in the problems with the game itself, especially the partner AI if you're playing single player. He takes full advantage of the game's problems to create a boss fight that is accidentally difficult, to the point where you'll have trouble even hurting him without taking damage yourself, even more so given that, while his first fight is mostly platforming, his second fight is a full boss fight in which most of his attacks impact a large part of the battle arena and his most powerful attack, if not avoided, requires a button mashing QTE to survive. And he's only number 2 (mostly because many of his problems are actually those of the game itself, he just punishes you for them).

1. Mothrakk (Borderlands)

Mothrakk is the perfect example for the "don't judge a book by it's cover" mentality. All other bosses on this list are story bosses, and most occur toward the end of the game. Mothrakk is a side mission boss for a mission you get halfway through the game, but is still one of the hardest bosses in the entire game. Unlike all other rakk, who either dive at you or come close and breathe fire at you, Mothrakk attacks by flying above you and dropping fiery bombs. He is the only enemy in the game who does anything like this, and for a reason. You can't realistically shoot him while he's above you since you'll get hit by the bombs, he's out of range for some types of weapons, and the guns on the vehicles don't usually have the right angle to actually hit him but they're the only way to outrun him and avoid the bombs. The best way to actually win this fight is to wait until you've finished the main story and are 10 or so levels above what the mission recommends, at which point if you do manage to hit him it will take out a large amount of his health. But that's not the end of it. Mothrakk is a respawning boss, which means that if you go through the area he's fought in again and you can't outrun him, you have to fight him again. Possibly repeatedly. And there's even another mission right next to his spawn point. He's a giant moth that manages not only to be probably the hardest boss in the game, but the most annoying boss I've ever seen.

Something New

I've decided to branch off and start doing Top 5s for thing I've seen in video games. It's important to note that I might update these posts when I find something else that's better qualified to be on the list.

Evolve's New Hunters and Monster

Here I am again, sorry that this one is hilariously late. On the note of Evolve's new DLC, I have decided not to review the two new maps since, despite their differences from current maps, they aren't much except "Hey, we have new maps, let's see what they do!"

So, why not start with the monster.

The Behemoth is useless.

It sounds good in concept, having a tank monster that moves slowly and has good damage would cater to a different play style and diversify the monster roster. But in practice, it doesn't work. This is mainly because (and I'm going to grace the developers by ignoring the bugs I've heard about) the Behemoth's tanking capability doesn't come until after it evolves and gains a lot of health and shield, but until you have evolved at least once, you need to survive by outrunning the Hunters, which the Behemoth can't do. He is so slow that he can barely keep up with the Hunters (who will probably be both running and jet-packing, like normal), and he certainly can't outrun their bullets. He doesn't have the flight or invisibility needed to outthink the Hunters either (while he can roll around, he doesn't have enough open spaces to make this work), leading to a lot of early game deaths. His one saving quality is that if you somehow get him to evolve, he quickly becomes very hard to kill.

Next, the Assault. Torvald, like the Behemoth, caters to a different play style. While the other Assaults have been mostly "direct" damage dealers (meaning that their weapons shoot straight), Torvald loves bombs. His mortars deal alot of damage, and his shrapnel can greatly multiply damage done. His shotgun can deal very good damage up close, but won't work well against anything but the Behemoth.

The Trapper, Crow, is actually not that good. I genuinely want to like him, but I just can't. His bird can find the Monster, but actually fails more often than it succeeds, and only highlights the monster in view, not on the map itself, and doesn't last very long. I simpler words, he can't track the Monster. His other weapons, can respectively slow the monster by shooting it and do damage, even skipping the armor entirely. Both sound like good ideas, but because of how the slow gun works you have to choose one or the other, sacrificing part of your arsenal.

Sunny, the Support, is ok. She works about as well as any other Support, and she has a defensive play style  (like Hank). That's all that can really be said.

The Medic, Slim, is probably the most innovative character in this pack. He is the only one who can really be described as a combat medic, since his main healing is by the healing burst (which has incredible range), which is recharged by shooting the Monster, and he has drones to heal teammates in between fights. This system works very well, and ensures that your allies are usually fully healed. His spore launcher doesn't work as well by comparison, as the Monster needs to be hit for it to work, which makes it pointless by telling the Monster where you are. The only instance in which it works is if Slim is somehow the last one alive, and needs to get away (which shouldn't be happening).

The new characters are meant to add something new to each class, but half of them fall flat. I would suggest that if any of the characters seem good for you, buy them separately, it'll probably be cheaper.

Today's funny quote is:
"Incredible! Using your brain, and all the hurdles that implies, you have correctly identified a piece of the Vault Key." -Patricia Tannis (Borderlands)

Fire Emblem: Awakening; Difficulties and Permadeath

I know that I already reviewed Awakening, but I failed to mention the permadeath system of the game, along with it's difficulty settings.

The difficulties are Normal, which is, well, normal; Hard, which is like Normal but with more and tougher enemies; Lunatic, which is for true tactical geniuses, extremely experienced players, and people who have no idea what they are getting into; and he unlockable Lunatic+, which is for masochists. Further explanation: in Hard, enemies also get more skills, including ones they shouldn't be able to have, also possibly having Forged weapons starting at Chapter 21; in Lunatic enemies are extremely tough (possibly one-hit killing the Avatar very early in the game) and have even earlier access to skills; in Lunatic+ the trend continues, but now enemies are randomly given skills that it is impossible to have, there is no class in the entire game that can unlock these skills (so your characters can't get them). The only other thing worth mentioning is that it can be hard to go to higher difficulties initially, as your tactics from the previous difficulty might not work thanks to the higher enemy numbers.

Now onto the topic of permadeath. I know that veteran fans of most strategy series might not like me for this, but I'll say it anyway: I don't think permadeath in this game is a good idea. I like permadeath, I think that it adds to the games it's in, makes your decisions more important and can make you care about your soldiers. This still applies to most Fire Emblem games, where it does basically the same thing, but Awakening is different in that it has post-story content. Even if you finish the story, you still have random Risen encounters and tons of DLC, both free and paid. This makes losing units not only worse in the long run, but more likely to happen as more battles=more chances for someone to die. There are only two options to prevent this: you can either only play the story mode and possibly paralouges, giving the game a definite ending; or you can never lose a unit, which, as you will quickly learn, is a bad idea. You will lose a unit at some point, even if you're only in story mode, which will cause you to restart the level and try something else to not lose the unit, after a few times this makes the game boring at best and intensely aggravating at worst. So, permadeath is a difficult thing to manage in this game unless you're not going to play the post-story.

Today's funny game quote is:

"Have you no respect for our ancient profession? We're supposed to be harbingers of pestilence and famine and doom!"

"Mm... I love doom." -Tharja and Henry (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

For Future Posts

Since I've decided to continue with this, I've decided to set up some structure for my posts. They'll always be large, that's just how I write, and they will always have both facts and opinions, since it's a review.

However, something new is that I will also post short comment pieces on some DLC (or the like) for games that I have been playing, not necessarily that I've reviewed, such as the release for Evolve DLC tomorrow. I might also post my thoughts on some common themes or plot/ gameplay devices I've seen in video games, and potentially some common industry practices.

And today's funny game quote is:

"Don't curse the darkness, light a candle. When freaky aliens give you lemons, make freaky alien lemonade! -Hades (Kid Icarus: Uprising)

Evolve

I didn't think I would ever use this blog again. I thought that I was done with it, but I feel the need to get my opinion on this game out, so I will, even if no one ever sees, let alone cares, about my opinion.

Evolve is a new multiplayer game that uses a 4 vs. 1 model of gameplay, as 4 Hunters are tasked with hunting down and killing 1 player- controlled Monsters, with different variations on this.

The 4 vs. 1 idea behind Evolve has been commended as new and innovative, but limited idea. I agree with this, but I don't believe that it is limited. There are plenty of possible game modes that could be implemented, such as Hunters capturing waypoints while being attacked by Minions and a Monster inside of an environment meant to look like the Monsters' nesting ground (sort of a reverse Defend mode), or the Monster being tasked with destroying a convoy of trucks protected by Hunters. So, this game is new, innovative, and not nearly as limited as critics expect it to be.

As for the game itself, lets start with the characters. All five classes (Assault, Trapper, Medic, Support, Monster) have the tools to do each of their jobs, as well as help with some others. For some examples; Hank (Support) has very powerful weapons with the Laser Cutter and Orbital Barrage, allowing him to pick up slack for the Assault should it be necessary, the other Supports (Bucket and Cabot) have tools that allow them to track the Monster, helping the Trapper, the third Medic, Caira, has an Acceleration Field, allowing the team to move much faster (backing up Support) and the Assault Markov has mines, preventing the Monster from entering certain areas and helping the Trapper contain the Monster. Also, the characters themselves are well balanced (with some small exceptions), as each one of the current 15 has equal strengths and weaknesses when compared to the other members of their class, for examples; Lazarus is almost incapable of healing his teammates, unlike Val and Caira, but can bring them back from the dead with full health, causing him to have higher risks and rewards, when the other Medics are safer choices, but provide less, also, for the Supports, Hank is better at keeping his team alive during a longer fight using his Shield, something that Cabot lacks, but Cabot can force confrontations to end faster by using his Damage Amplifier to force the Monster to retreat. As for the Monsters, most of the balance comes from different sizes of health and shield bars being used to counter more effective abilities, such as between Goliath and Wraith, which are both close-range fighters. The Goliath is slower, and while it's attacks do more damage (that is based off of playing as both, I don't know actual numbers), the Wraith has an ability that temporarily increases it's damage. However, the Goliath has much more health and shield than the Wraith, allowing Goliath players to tank damage, while Wraith players have to use their speed to their advantage, often using hit-and-run tactics, as the Wraith can't last in a straight up fight.

The game's current 5 modes are somewhat simple; in Hunt you hunt the monster or run from hunters until you're ready to fight, in Nest you destroy/protect Monster eggs (which all hatch Goliaths, oddly), in Rescue you rescue/kill wounded people, in Defend you defend/destroy power stations for an escaping ship, and in Evacuation you play a mixture of the previous game modes spread across 5 different games. The game shipped with 16 maps, with more maps and modes being promised to be for free later. These maps have a mixture of different wildlife, each meant to make a map seem more authentic (for example, the desert-dwelling Megamouth (giant toad that looks like a rock and tries to eat Hunters whole) won't be found in the snowy Distillery). Also, each map has different locations for important objects, and different terrain for each side to work with.

The story is surprisingly deep, something not often mentioned about the game. Turtle Rock created a universe for this game that is slowly revealed, alongside the backstories of the hunters, through conversations between the hunters at the beginning of a match, with the conversations differing depending on which hunters are in play. Aside from that, one of the writers has been writing and releasing backstories for some of the characters, which can be found here. Although the mystery of the monsters' origins isn't even close to solved, some hints have been dropped, and plenty of depth has been added to the current hunters.

This game's biggest fault is in the DLC, which is solely the fault of it's publisher, 2K games. I have no problem with large amounts of DLC, preorder DLC, day 1 DLC, or plenty of other tactics game companies use to sell DLC. These stem from basic economic concepts that many businesses use to sell products. The problem with the DLC is that it is hilariously overpriced and that there has not been enough solid communication regarding it. For example on the first point, right now a Monster is $15 and an individual Hunter is $7.50 (although neither have actually been released, I'm pretty sure these are the announced prices). That means that if no bundling is used, a tier (4 Hunters and 1 Monster, just as a refresher) is $45. The game, which includes 16 maps, 5 game modes, 12 Hunters, 3 Monsters, and the base code of the game, is $60. Although all future maps and game modes are promised for free, the 3 tiers alone would be worth, according to 2K Games, $135 if no bundling is done. Thats over twice as much, and is quite honestly exorbitant and inexcusable, and it isn't as simple as a few hunters and monsters being released over a long period of time. The 4th tier has been already been announced for March 31st, and the concept art for the game, which has been released, shows dozens of future hunters. At the current pricing, very few players will be able to buy (or want to buy) all of the hunters, meaning that most will be missing out on a lot of the game's content. To sum it up, 2K is being greedy, and it is badly hurting their game. Then, their marketing. Someone in 2K games' marketing team badly needs to be fired. Ignoring all of the pre release confusion over DLC (as that mess needs no explanation aside from "they f****d up") they labeled a bundle for 3 skins and 4 future hunters the "Hunting Season Pass", which, by naming it a Season Pass, implies that it's purchaser will be getting all future DLC for the game probably up to a certain date (as there is ALOT of DLC planned for this game) for free, which isn't true. Then they heavily delayed a major patch until the aforementioned March 31st, which despite all of the different ideas/excuses for why, I believe was caused by 2K rushing the developers on the Tier 4 Hunters and Monster (because 2K have been attacked from many sides for promising that much completely unknown DLC, an explanation which also accounts for the promise of future patching being much faster). Finally, said tier 4's release date was withheld, everyone saying "it will be there when it's done", only to be simultaneously revealed and announced to be under a month away. 2K's handling of marketing and DLC isn't just unorthodox and annoying, it is downright stupid.

Aside from that, the game suffers from it's share of bugs, some annoying upgrade requirements, balancing issues, and the simple fact that it is an unconventional shooter. It is innovating and requires tactical thought, something that not everyone is accustomed to. Because of this, there are people playing this game that don't understand it much more than "shoot the monster and anything else that attacks you". For examples from my experience in the game's online multiplayer, while playing as a Support once, my teams Trapper stayed on their gun the entire time, not bothering with laying down harpoon traps or their mobile arena (although they were capable of following their hunting dog around, so we have that). We barely won that match, and only because between the Medic's tranquilizer darts and my sentry guns, we slowed the Monster down enough for the other two to kill it. In another case, I played as Monster in a Defend game, had made a hit and run attack on the generator, and was leaving to feed when the Medic started chasing after me, alone. They died.

Evolve is a great and innovative game with a surprisingly deep story, interesting characters and weapons, and plenty of potential. It does suffer from most of the same issues that plague most new games, but it's greatest weakness is it's mistreatment by it's publisher, a problem that could very easily kill this game and stop this kind of innovation.

Now for something new: a funny game quote! I'll do two here since this is the first post with them

"You have a quality. You make things want to kill you. It's a gift really." -Gorvin (Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor)

"Tyrant here. A slow and painful death if any of you are feeling suicidal." -Bucket (Evolve)