Tony Polanco from The Koalition:
"We begin the show by talking about the top three Gaming, Tech, and Pop Culture news items of the year. There was no single gaming event bigger than GamerGate so it automatically gets the highlight treatment as biggest gaming story. The comet landing was probably the most important news story of the decade since it puts us one step closer to claiming our rightful place among the stars. Finally, we talk about the biggest Pop Culture news story which was the Marvel Studios movie slate press event. An event so monumental that we had to do an impromptu Throwdown special edition episode for it.
The bulk of this podcast isn’t dedicated to news however. To make things really special, we run down our individual top three favorite video games and movies from 2014. If you’re a regular viewer/listener of Throwdown then you can probably guess what some of us are going to pick but now you can all see exactly what we thought was the best of the best from this past year."
Released on September 30 2014, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is 10 years old today, and it's still the best blueprint for the LOTR franchise.
Honestly, just a fantastic game/series (aside from the blunder of Microtransactions/grinding). The system with the orcs was amazing.. which it would be implemented in more games.
They patented the system, sadly. What that means legally I am not sure. But people don’t want to test the water.
I feel you bro. The experience got better once I tried it on PC, but I'm still probably only going to finish the Galadriel DLC and not the main campaign.
Me too lol. I beat Mordor, never beat War lol. I have it though so I could always go back and play it. I genuinely think the time will come that I can beat my backlog. Maybe when I hit the lotto and can just play video games all day, on my yacht.
This game convinced me to buy a new console. There was a huge difference between the previous gen (Xbox360/ PS3) & the latest gen (Xbox One/ PS4) . The Nemesis System was only available in Xbox One/ PS4 . That was how a generation shift should be.
Dragon Age: Inquisition, developed by BioWare, is the third installment in the cherished Dragon Age series. It represents a major evolution from its predecessor, Dragon Age II, incorporating elements that were well-loved in the original Dragon Age: Origins but also introducing new features that stand on their own. While Inquisition improves upon Dragon Age II in many respects, it falls short of the exceptional standards set by Origins.
Unfortunately, the open worlds in games like Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Halo Infinite, and the original Assassin's Creed do more harm than good.
I legitimately loved Halo's switch to open world. They made traversal of the map entertaining, and everything involved just tied into the (what I consider) awesome gunplay.
The entire time I really felt the slow takeover of the map, and all the little steps forward felt satisfying.
I don't know what more people really want there, considering the setting and story. A handful of soldiers hunkered down on enemy territory; slowly trying to win the battle.
I agree I liked the switch to the open world, it was large with beautiful land scapes. However, it did feel a bit empty, and wasn’t as action packed as I would have liked. A lot of the bases felt like fillers instead of something of wonder. Let’s see what 343 under new management does from here cause Halo needs some updating
I'm surprised they scrapped the Slipspace engine. I thought the graphics looked great, the sandbox physics were as good as ever, and the AI worked well. Clearly a lot of work went into it and it appears to have been optimized for the new generation of GPUs. The only issue I had with it was the lack of environments, would have been cool to have different biomes on the ring to explore. A bit more variety in missions would have been nice, maybe some timed events where you have to manuever a banshee through forerunner architecture or some mongoose speedruns would have spiced things up.
I think R* are the only ones who have made compelling open worlds. I can’t stomach most open world games and how boring they are with busy world. It’s like a flex to make this massive environment, but it’s extremely boring to traverse and play in. GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 blew me away with how incredible their worlds were. Elden Ring was the only other game to give me that sense of awe.
GTA V and unfortunately, Saints Row the original have had some of the most aggressive open world features where the world doesn’t feel so bland. To me what makes GTA V so special is the way the characters react to the world around them vs how the world reacts to them. For example, in GTA when you switch to Franklin and he walked past an attractive female he responded “ damn you fine” or in Saints row you can run up in the pawn shop flash a gun and watch them respond by raising their hands in the air, or they press the silent alarm making you have to run away from the cops. Halo infinite doesn’t have those kind of moments that make you feel apart of the world it just feels like it’s there.
Trevor talking to random vegan npc: "You suck c*ck, but you don't eat meat.... It don't make sense to me "
Classic. Such a shame we won't get that humour again now that R* have gone all in on virtue.
AC Odyssey with the next gen patch is pretty incredible, especially if you like a sea shantie. Lol.
I’m back on an open world kick after Horizon. I don’t know what clicked in me but exploring the map and seeing the detail work has me loving open worlds again. Playing AC Odyssey on hard and really enjoying it and the map. Reinstalling RDR2 tonight because damn, that map is just incredible for sightseeing.
Halo Infinite felt off. It's like the developers didn't know what they really wanted to do
Depends on which open world titles u play, most of em are shitty AF, but I honestly admire open world genre, sometimes to just take a break from fighting and missions you explore n see details you haven't noticed before cause you were too busy body at first, then boom finding some dope equipment or things to sale
