So it has been quite a while now since we have had a 100% single player Star Wars game, I can’t even recall the last one to be honest.

So when Respawn announced that they were making a new single player only, no loot box, no multiplayer, no pay to win game, the industry took a moment to pick their jaws up off the floor.

EA is not known for giving us complete games. Hell, their entire business model up to 2018 was to shill every customer for as much as they thought they could get away with.

Well that was til the backlash against them over Star Wars Battlefront 2. Fans spoke out so loud and long that they actually revamped their entire loot plan, and BF2 took such a financial hit from negative press, that I am honestly stunned EA even entertained another Star Wars game.

But they really did learn, and become humble at this years E3, coming right out saying they are eliminating loot boxes and paid expansion, it was a brazen change of direction for them. One fans looked on skeptically.

But proof is in the pudding.

Here we sit a year later with one of the best Star Wars games I have ever played, second only to Knight of the Old Republic.

The story takes place in a time between Episode 3 and Episode 4. After order 66 wiped out the Jedi, but about 10 years prior to A New Hope.

With a force sensitive scrap salvager and a fallen Jedi as his teacher.

I wont give away much of the story, as it is honestly pretty great, and works very well within the confines of the universe we all know and love.

At its core, it is a really weird mix of well established genres.

It is part Tomb Raider / Uncharted in its level traversal and climbing based puzzles. With wonderfully crafted worlds (6 in total) that are all open world, yet in the fashion of Legend of Zelda, require certain items or force skill unlocked as you journey to open paths in a level you are in.

Puzzling is nothing terribly difficult, but there are a lot of secrets and alternate routes to take if you are keeping a close eye on the level.

It is part Dark Souls in it unforgiving difficulty and the way it handles death. Every time you die, you respawn back at the previous place you meditated. And thus respawns all the enemies in the area.

This makes for a real balancing act, when you are low on health, do you meditate and respawn everyone? Or do you forge on and hope you make it to the next checkpoint.

If you do get killed my an enemy, they will now glow after your respawn, and they will hold all your previously acquired and unspent experience. Pushing you to find them and kill them, or you risk losing it all.

It has a vary Final Fantasy skill tree, where you spend points you accumulate from experience, every XX amount of points you get, nets you a skill point to spend on abilities. Most ranging from 1 to 3 points to unlock.

There are a fair bit of skills to unlock as well=, about 40 in total if I recall correctly. From throwing your saber, to additional combos, force push and pull boosts, etc. All adding to your arsenal of force destruction.

Upon day 1 release, sadly the game suffered from A LOT of glitches, from disappearing droids, to not being able to complete a Platinum run of the game as the collectables were glitched.

In the coming 4 weeks post launch though, they managed to clean pretty much all of it up. Just a bit frustrating for us day one buyers.

The only downside or negative I can say about the game is, they is little to no replay value added. Once you have got a Platinum, you have honestly seen and done it all.

I understand there may be a New Game + mode coming, that would go far in extending the life of the game for sure.

Visuals in Fallen Order are top notch, with excellent use of HDR and 4k, the game is incredibly crisp and colorful. Some of it can be a little too dark at times, even with a well calibrated TV or projector, but all in all the good outweighed the bad.

Sound was stellar, but not surprisingly so considering it is Lucas magic after all. Tie Fighters buzzing overhead, wayward shots from stormtroopers who can’t hit a thing, all of it sounded on par with the films.

An excellent romp that lasted about 25-30 hours for a Platinum trophy, and a damn fine addition to the Star Wars universe.

A solid 9/10 and a must buy for any Star Wars fan out there.

So this one is a big difficult to review. I am a huge fan of Kojima, and this is his first new IP from his new company, and in a way it kind of shows.

It is by no means an Indie game, yet there are things about it that scream Indie title.

From unfinished design elements, to bizarre story telling that needs to be read about online post game to ensure you understood what just happened.

Yet on the other hand, this is nothing but AAA.

From perfectly mastered environment, great character design and stellar acting, to a killer soundtrack that will stick in your head.

It is all tossed in a blender and comes out with a strange UPS delivery man simulation in the end.

When I first started Death Stranding I presumed the parcel delivery was a kitschy little thing that would going to be a secondary element.

Well boy was I wrong, the game is 95% package delivery. And the weird part is, it works.

I started off not really caring for it, it was an annoyance, always having to balance you load, make sure you were not carrying too much, or that you were not falling and breaking your goods, or having them rust away in the terrible rains.

But slowly as time passed, I found I was trying harder and harder to get the mail to the rightful owners. It just grows on you over time. When drudging hip deep in snow, trying you best not to slip and ruin your load.

Things do get easier as time goes o, you develop the ability to craft buildings and roads at the heavy cost of resources. But the sooner you can get together a highway or a zip line network, the easier things will be in the back half of the game.

The game also ties together with online in a weird Dark Souls kinda of way, with a persistent online tie to other players and their buildings. They will help supply resources for your roads for instances.

Or leave little emoji signs warning you of danger, or of treasure ahead.

It is a strange add in that works well for the world, but sadly did not serve much purpose.

You cannot interact with other people in any way directly.

The graphics in Death Stranding are absolutely amazing. For a new studio, it is extremely impressive what Kojima could achieve here. The world he crafted is exquisite. From barren desert plains, to snowy mountains, to grassy fields, all of it feels very real, and very somber.

This is a game about isolation, you spend the vast majority of it alone, you vs the elements.

With the occasional smattering of vocal music to set the mood.

The audio is a real treat as well, there is a TON of rain in this game, and it pairs well with simulated Atmos. The ceiling feels huge here, and the surround is well designed.

While it does lack in bass for my liking, the ambient noise in the game is a real treat. In a world so dead, it certainly sounded alive.

Some of the weird shortcomings in the game center a lot around driving.

This is where the Indie side of things starts to show.

There are a few types of vehicles in the game, mainly bikes and trucks.

But my God the bikes are HORRIBLE! Like we are talking 1 out of 10 stars horrible.

It is like something that was designed in the Sony PS1 days. You cant even bump a rock without getting stuck or flipping. It is absolutely terrible. So bad that 90% of the time I avoided them altogether and just walked instead.

That’s right, I would rather spend a dozen extra hours walking than use the provided transportation.

There was also some technical glitches, like the game randomly crashing when a cutscene would start, those type of QA things that could have been fixed with another few weeks of testing.

But I imagine Kojima needed this out in time for holiday 2019.

Had this been any other designer, they likely would have been crucified over the issues. But we all give him a bit of a free pass due to the amazing story telling he does.

All in all Death Stranding was a good game, warts and all.

Not a 10/10 title, but a fantastic 1st attempt for a man who has shaped the gaming industry over the last 30+ years.

A must play for Kojima fan, or for aspiring UPS / postal workers.

A decent 7.5/10.

When trolling the rebrickable site a year or so ago, I stumbled upon the plans for 2 amazing MOCs, the Colonial Viper, and the Cylon Raider.

I immediately knew I had to have them, and promptly bought the instructions from the creator.

I dumped the part list into brick link, and came to find I would have to spend about 600 per ship to complete the builds. Not too shabby, but at the time I just didn’t have the capital to put on them.

So fast forward to spring 2019 and low and behold, the Chinese block-off community decided to make the Colonial Viper, and for a paltry $200 none the less, this immediately went to the top of my list, and I for the first time in Lepin history, pre-ordered it.

Now this was a mistake.

I was too damn excited, and jumped on the promise of coming next month. (This was Feb 2019)

4 long months passed, and after delays and more delays due to the bust of Lepin, I was getting pretty skeptical if this would even happen.

Well finally after long last, the end of June arrived and so did my shiny new ship.

I immediately tore into it, to find for the first time, there was not instructions. Now luckily I had actually purchased them the year before, but I would be pretty pissed if I had to shell out another $50 for instructions that in the beginning, were not conveyed that I had to buy.

I cracked all the bags open and dove in.

It became very quickly apparent that sadly the color match on the bricks were all over the place. The reds do not all match, nor do the whites.

All in all it does not matter too much, when it is on a shelf 9 ft away from my desk chair, I cant see a difference at all.

The build itself was moderately challenging. Nothing crazy for a MOC build, but there was a difference in color choice for the interior unseen bricks that was not mentioned, this lead to some searching for nothing as the bricks I needed were different.

This is a real shortcoming in the MOC block-off community. They seriously need to supply a part substitution list.

There are really only 2 major short falls in this set. One I am pissed off about, as it was never rectified by the seller (Jeremy @ Whatsapp)

The cockpit itself is 100% wrong.

The glass provided is completely incorrect, and the cost of a replacement on Bricklink is $20 or more.

When I brought it to his attention, he straight up told me they would not be able to provide a replacement:

Second, and this was a doozy.

The way the engines are constructed have to be the single handed stupidest think I have ever seen in a MOC.

You have to precariously place all the surrounding bricks, then shove a rubber tire into the middle, in such a precise way that if it is off by a couple mm, then it will not connect to the ship itself.

It took me close to an hour just to get a rough idea of how to do it, and probably 2 hours to make it would at all.

Essentially you make a Circle out of tank tracks, then you wedge a dish into the tire, which is an extremely tight fit, and does not fit evenly, then insert the small ring holding 8 tiny grates.

Here is a mini album of the process:

 

It was TERRIBLE.

Beyond those 2 major issue though, there was very little to report.

The build otherwise is very straight forward, it sits on the stand nicely, and looks fantastic on the shelf.

A good starter build for budding MOC folks, (short of the engines) and over all a rather non-frustrating build.

A 8/10 for finished presentation, and a must have for BSG fans.

When I first caught glimpse of this MOC, long before the Chinese block-off community grabbed it, I was taken aback.

It is rare to see a set like this. Something on a micro scale, yet so incredibly detailed. With hundreds of small buildings peeking out under the massive Star Destroyer. It was something of beauty, and something I figured I would never have a chance to build, as the likelihood of me putting in the time to collect the bricks for this was pretty unlikely.

But thankfully, the “Lepin” community rose to the challenge, and popped this set out.

Coming in at a whopping 5098 bricks, it is no small feat to put this thing together.

Sorting of MOCs is always a challenge, and I tend to not stray too far from how it is bagged. In my experience, bricks of a like step or kind tend to be together. Not always, but short of sorting every little brick, this is what I have found that works.

Sadly one thing that came immediately apparent was, they decided to change the color of the interior “unseen” bricks. Now this is not an issue IF, and this is a big one, IF you let people know what you changed….

What it made for was a terribly frustrating build as you had to literally guess what bricks would not be needed later. The substituted Red for Blue, but also put in a pile of light grey and dark grey, both of which are used in other parts of the build.

So when assembling the base, hundreds of substitutions were made, and worse yet, the manual is pretty unclear on colors specification. Sometimes things looked red, other times orange, and the 2 greys are almost identical in the book, so finding the right parts was a real challenge.

All that said, the base is incredibly well designed. It is solid and shows very little change of falling part at all.

The detail level is incredible, with multiple layers of “dirt” layer after layer.

Once the base was out of the way, the city level posed the next conundrum. The instructions on how the support posts inside are placed leaves a lot of guess work as well. So when you are coming around the structure later with the walls, you may run into instances where you have to take some of it apart, and move the columns as they are in the wrong place.

Another major shortcoming was the lack of properly colored supports for the star Destroyer. They provided white, and they should have been clear, this was to give it that floating look, which was completely ruined by 2 giant white technic sticks….

Worse yet is the fact that they are built right into the base and into the Star Destroyer, so if you decide to change them later, you will need to do a substantial amount of rebuilding. So mu suggestion is grab a pair of bricklink BEFORE you begin.

And while you are there, grab a set of clear sticks for the mini ship supports too, those are inconveniently white as well.

Lastly we have the Star Destroyer itself.

For a ship that is so “small” it is incredibly well details, but sadly, it is also incredibly poorly designed.

The top and bottom plates will not stay in place and closed along the seams at all.

I tried multiple redesigns in hopes to fix the flaws, but in the end was only able to find one fix… Kragle…

That is par for the course for MOC builds usually, but I still hate to break it out if I can avoid it.

The command deck as well was areal pain to assemble. From the instructions being a bit vague at points, to finding a delicate placement of things to make them look right. It was just a pain to assemble.

Luckily it required no glue to make work.

All in all, it is on par with MOC builds. It looks fantastic finished, but it is a royal pain in the ass to get there.

Definitely a 8/10 on the complexity scale. And only recommended for the seasoned MOC builder.

One of the coolest looking sets in my collection though, and I do still recommend it no matter the challenges faced.

So what can be said about the 16th game in an annual series that has not already been said 15 times before?

Honestly, not much.

What can be said is that Modern Warfare is #1, a really stupid way of naming a game, as they already had this exact title 10 years ago, so not really sure the mindset to calling it this, since it is not a remake, and it is not really a reboot, just another story in the Call of Duty universe with some characters we know and love.

#2 – This marks the triumphant return of a single player campaign.

Last year in 2018 we got Block Ops 4, the first Call of Duty to ever ditch the single player mode in lieu of a multiplayer only title. In a move I suspect Activision made so they could save money on development as they believed most folks in their eyes only play the online game.

This hurt them BAD. Sale of BO4 were about 50% of what they usually sell. Not shocking when you remove 50% of the game.

It was also the first Call of Duty game in 15 years I did not purchase. So withholding dollars actually did work in this case.

Modern Warfare is really typical Call of Duty fair, there is a big crisis, you need to take charge and stop a world threat no one knows about all while staying under the radar enough to not incite another world war. It is a tried and tested formula, and honestly, it works.

There is a reason they tend to sell 20 million copies a year, people like to play the hero. As do I.

Combat is very slick, over the last 15 games they have worked every kink and glitch out pretty much. It is fast paced, and never really feels unfair.

I play all of the Coll of Duty games on the hardest setting possible to milk the most out of the single player I can. I also like that actual feeling of war in a way. Where a single bullet will tend to do you in.

This one however felt a little light on difficulty on the hardest setting. Other than a few instances of getting overwhelmed by a group of enemies, I never really felt in imminent danger of dying if I pooped my head out of the gopher hole.

Visuals this time around were top notch as well. An obvious engine change has done wonders for the game. With expertly crafted HDR on a well tuned system made for ink black shadows and pure white flashlights. One of the better HDR presentation out there honestly.

Sound, while not in Atmos, worked very well with simulated Atmos. From helicopters overhead to siper fire whipping overhead, the sense of sound immersion was great.

All in al lthe single player campaign was pretty great for a franchise that is pretty much same old same old every year.

I can’t comment on the other half of the game though, the multiplayer. I did not even dip my toe in that pool. It has been about 5 years since I played any Call of Duty MultiPlayer online, and the community then was rife with cheaters and campers, so I can’t imagine it got any better in the last 5 versions.

If you are looking for a stellar war campaign in a time tested franchise, then I highly recommend you pick up Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019, you will not be disappointed.

A solid 9/10 for single player mode, and a big ?/10 for the multiplayer.