Days Gone – Playstation 4

Don’t believe all the critics! Second best zombie game next to Last of Us.
I pre-ordered this game as soon as I saw it at E3. I played about an hour when it arrived and put it down due to all the bad press I saw it getting. Critics tend to be overly critical about things. You never really see games in the middle, it’s either a 10 or a 0 with very little in between. How critics are able to complete games of this size within what I assume is less than a week and portray an accurate picture of the game is beyond me. In fact I’m pretty sure most of them never complete the games in their entirety. And people on here posting 1 star reviews when they haven’t barely played it is ridiculous. How can you review a game that can take 60 to 80 hours in a day’s worth of playing it and have any informed opinion of it?Thankfully I picked it back up again and played through it over a month. I heard about all the bugs and things people found wrong with it. Frankly I think some people complain just for the sake of complaining. As gamers we have become spoiled. If a game doesn’t release on the date it’s supposed to we complain, if it does release early to satisfy gamers we complain about the bugs they didn’t have time to fix.As a software engineer myself and one that works in quality assurance I see a ton of bugs and almost every day something is broken. It’s not because the people at Bend are not good at their job, it’s because software development with lot’s of employees and tight deadlines causes mistakes. That’s just the nature of the business. Too many cooks in the kitchen. But games of this size need large studios to do the work so sometimes you have to overlook the flaws to find the good these people have done.After waiting for a while before starting again, it gave them time to fix bugs. Other than the image freezing every now and then to load things into memory (playing on original PS4 and wasn’t a game breaker for me) I never had any other bugs occur. I enjoyed the combat, the motorcycle upgrades, the beautiful graphics, the characters, the realism (no wacky/goofy weapons) and the story was a lot better than some people let on. I wanted a AAA game like State of Decay but actually good. This delivered for me in a market full of crap zombie games.Yes the game loop got repetitive (think Assassin’s Creed) but the story kept me engaged. And if you look really hard enough, every game out there has a game loop. That’s how they are made. If studios had to craft every element of a game to be a unique style of play that didn’t repeat you’d be waiting for a decade for a game to come out.Don’t believe all the negativity out there. Try things yourself and form your own opinions. Critics are not always the best source of information as everyone has their own opinions about what they like.

Great Game
NO SPOILERS: This was a surprise hit for me. It’s an open world adventure very much mimicking the FarCry or Assassin’s Creed genre. It is post-apocalyptic (my favorite genre) US Pacific Northwest, and I enjoyed it’s slightly more plausible plot (are zombies ever plausible) than most zombie games. The world was well thought out and seemed like what might really happen if a virus zombified our world. I particularly enjoyed that you get around on a motorcycle and have to scrounge for fuel. This seemed likely as the motorcycle is versatile, low gas needs, goes off road, easily hidden, etc. The driving mechanics were great, and upgrading your bike (speed, traction, durability, etc.) is fun. You get the typical plot missions and side missions (which build currency, faction trust, and gain items). The game thankfully has minimal junk missions (like Assassins Creed parkour challenges, or FarCry race for time challenges). These always strike me as contrived. Why would I ever stop the mission to chase a piece of paper floating on the wind? So not only did it keep it more real (I know zombies aren’t real, but I want the narrative to stay realistic within the defined world), but it also solved my biggest complaint about open world games by having a plot that is a little more intrusive. Not so much that I didn’t enjoy exploring or prioritizing missions my way, but enough that I felt the presence of the well-written narrative. And every time things started to get a little old, the story brought a twist with new environments and elements. It kept me engaged all the way to the end.

Arrive vite

Ok so a friend of mine put me into this game. They’re not wrong at all. Everything from the soundtrack to the graphics is amazing. You can be as cautious as you like or get straight up fighting. Be warned tho it can be easy to get surrounded if you don’t keep an eye on the surroundings. From hordes of zombies to crazy crows and insanely fast wolves this game has it all. With a sweet ride that you can personalise and camp jobs to be done for credit it gives a realistic feel to what life would be like if something like this actually happened. The story itself is great (not gonna spoil any of it). It’s more than a mind numbing running around zombie bashing game. You have to strategically plan how you’ll clear enemy camps, critically check you’ve disabled loud speaks to give you a chance of securing loot. You need to think of the environment as well. Is it better to clear a camp during the day or at night? Dry or raining? Especially if you’re short on health and bullets. Let’s face it a un-upgraded 2×4 isn’t going to last long. I haven’t stopped playing it since I got it. From hunting for meat and plants to clearing camps there is always something to do if you don’t want to run main missions.