So I just finished up with Days Gone and it is my first platinum of 2019, bringing my total to 52 now.

I usually let that be a measure of how much I loved a game, but with Days Gone that is not the case. Not even 100% sure why I persisted to get it after the game was over really.

Now that is not to say Days Gone is bad, but I saw a review that really nailed it in one statement.

“Days Gone should have been called AAA The Video Game”

Why?

Because it checks all the boxes, it misses nothing.

Good story, huge open world, lots to do, lots of meaningful side quests, good progression system, decent NPCs, ok combat, etc, etc.

But notice how in that statement I never said great.

That is Days Gone in a nutshell.

It does everything just ok, and it is hands down the best mediocre game I have every played (use that as a backhanded box quote if you like), but never excels past OK.

It never falters in its design, but it never moves the genre forward either.

I am not one about change in video games. If you have a system that is great, do not remake the whole franchise from the ground up next game (I am looking at you Square-Enix) take the good and cut the bad.

But Days Gone just never gets passed the status quo.

It never does anything wrong, but it never does anything overly right.

I know this may sound a bit cryptic, but it is a tough game to explain, because on one hand, it compelled me to play ti to 100%, on the other I look back and thing Meh, that was OK.

While I wanted to know more about the world and how this zombie end of days came to pass, for the vast majority of the people in it, I simply didn’t care.

It was very cliche, you had all the typical zombie genre tropes. The good camp set on making the world a better place, the crazy slaver lady using refugees as slave labor, the crazy conspiracy theory camp, the militia camp and the nut-bag Zombie worshiper faction.

All of which we have seen in most zombie genres since we have had zombie movies and games.

And that is just it, Days Gone never really tried to excel, tried to break the norm genre bar that has been set for decades.

That is, until the 60th hour (yes Days Gone is bloody long) when there is a mind-blowing reveal as a mission only available after 100% of the missions are complete.

Something that turn the game and the genre on its head, and makes me want to play Days Gone 2 now.

I wont spoil anything here, but I implore you to play this to the bitter end even once the credits roll, it is really worth the pay off.

All the games NPC threads get tied up post game which is weird.

When the credits rolled I was left asking “well what about Mike, what about Lisa, what happened to O’Brian” and all that gets answered in the proceeding 10 odd side missions.

The core game itself is also a perfectly made mediocre shooter / sneaking game.

With Assassin’s Creed like sneaking in bushes and hit and run tactics if you get caught cleaning out an enemy camp.

The game is built around stealth when dealing with human players, but in the later half of the game I found little difficulty walking into a camp and just shooting people left right and center, so it was a bit game breaking and jarring. IT went from tactical stealth shooter to run and gun in an instant. When you realize there is no benefit to sneaking around after you kill the first 100 people in stealth for a trophy, then it kinda feels like you broke the game and are not playing like the developer intended.

One of the coolest features of the game though that is original, is your motorcycle. This is the equivalent to a good NPC companion.

You level it up via upgrades that are gated behind camp friendship level. Do more for a camp, the more things you can buy from them. From shocks to fuel tank upgrades, engine, frames, etc. All helping give you speed and traction to traverse all over Oregon.

One pro tip I learned at the 60 hour mark when looking to find a way to get my last trophy (a weird one where you have to boost and drift for 5 seconds) and I come to find you can teleport your bike anywhere on the map wit the press and hold of Square…. That would have helped save hours of walking back to my bike after taking out a Ambush base… /facepalm.

Nowhere in the games menus or loading screens did it mention this tip, wtf guys!!!!

The game visuals are top notch here too. With full well done HDR support, the game though dark at times really shines with properly calibrated HDR.

Dark caves offer up dancing shadows and dark yet visible corners.

Day and night cycles look perfect in HDR, with moonlight breaking through the trees and casting shows through a forest.

Another standout is the weather system, it will drizzle, rain, thunderstorm and snow, all of which dynamically change the environment.

Stand still in a camp while it is snowing and you can see the ground slowly change from brown and muddy to snow covered in a few mins. Also affecting bike traction I might add.

This is where Days Gone shines, on the little things, the stuff that makes the world more human and real. Sadly the things we may take for granted and ignore.

Lastly is the sound presentation.

Days Gone may be one of the best games I have ever heard in simulated Atmos.

Rain storms completely fill the top of the theater in sound, you can hear the rain falling, here it pinging off tin roofs and thudding on traditional ceilings. It was a real pleasure to listen to.

The only thing that suffered a bit was like most games, the dialog with NPC in front of you could sometimes be too low, yet if you swung around and put them standing behind you, they were loud and clear, and no, this is not due to a poorly calibrated theater, all my speakers are done via Audyssey and then hand tweaked with a SPL meter. So they are balanced.

It is sadly the nature of the game, and it happens in about 50% of the games I play. No clue why, but it must be a mixing thing.

All in all Days Gone was a fun time, but never wowed me, never pulled me in and made me race home from work to play, it just tops out as OK, and sometimes, that is OK too.

A decent 7.5/10, could have been much higher if they reached a bit more. A must have for Zombie genre fans, as there is nothing else out there quiet like it.

What began with Demon Souls a decade ago in 2009 on the PS3 has come a long way. Spawning an entire genre of old school difficulty from the Ninja Gaiden days and adding in modern day refinements like online griefing to make the most loved it or hate it category in gaming to date.

Now “Souls” games themselves are not for everyone, and many a plebe has cried foul over the years for these games not being accessible to them. But here is the kicker. They are not suppose to be, nor do they have to be.

This genre is for the die hards, for those that love a challenge and rejoice in the fact of not having a difficulty slider. For those who come home after a hard day of work, and want to have their ass handed to them. There are no shortcuts, no cheats, no hand holding. Just you and the game until either you break through, or it breaks you.

And break me it did.

I used to be a Souls lover til the bitter end. Seeking out games for their challenge, playing and game I buy on the hardest setting to challenge myself. I felt I had to earn a story, to play it like the hero, struggle like they did.

Well you know what…

That is bullshit.

In the last year playing through my backlog (or last 5 years really) I have come to find a few things.

I no longer crave that challenge. I know I am a good gamer. I know I can play on Insane mode and win, and that has become enough for me.

Sekiro was the straw that broke the camels back.

Unlike other Souls games, for the first time this game does not have any online component. Now some may rejoice in this, you no longer have assholes invading your world and killing you in one hit. Which is wonderful.

But what you do not have now is the ability to call for help from wayward strangers looking to lend a hand to gamers truly stuck.

So in Sekiro, it is you against the machine, and that is it.

Now for the most part, that is great, and honestly, the searching and path-finding from previous games is here and it is better than all previous iterations of Souls games combined.

But where the stop gap comes is the boss fights.

About 50% of the way through I got stuck. And that kind of stuck that is not fun, think God of War Valkyrie on Give me God of War mode (which I did by the way, on my first play-through), where I could not simply grasp the mechanics to do the fight.

I tried dozens of different strategies online (something I never look at btw), all looking like they could cut this guy down like a knife through hot butter. Yet whatever I did, I could not progress. After about 10 hours I finally beat him, and the felling of elation that I should have had, was not there, it was bitter resentment. I was pissed I wasted 10 hours on a single boss, and it did not feel fulfilling in any way shape or form.

I continued along with my usual pace until the very end boss, and hit the same wall. It was the same guy again, and then followed up with another uber boss.

I was able to best the 1st form with relative ease, as I was so powerful now. And then his second form shredded me like tissue paper, over and over for 4 hours before I say, fuck this, and quit. Not out of rage, but out of apathy. I simply didn’t care at this point. It was no longer worth my time, and I really was not having fun anymore. So for my first time in my 43 years, at the final boss, I hung it up and quit, never to return.

And you know what, I am ok with that.

It shows how I have evolved as a gamer. It shows that I have grown up. I no longer need that crazy difficulty to validate myself in my own mind. I just want to play, to have fun, to unwind after a hard week. Not to put up with the BS mechanics in a otherwise perfect game.

And that is the real crux of it. Sekiro at its heart is fantastic.

They took the Souls genre and advanced it in a massive leap.

The stealth mechanic makes it feel like a weird mix of Tenchu meets Onimusha meets Metal Gear Solid 4.

Slap all that together and it is a great package.

The mini boss fights are hard but fun and fair.

The game progress system is leaps and bounds better than the old Souls game, now when you are killing things, you kind of bank your EXP. You have these little gems you use to upgrade your skills, and when you get X number of exp, you gain a gem. When you die, and gems you have are locked in.

You only lose half you unbanked exp and half your money.

The trade off is there is no place to go pick up the lost exp and cash, it is gone for good.

This added a weird farming component to it. When you make it to a new checkpoint, and if you are a few thousand away from another gem, you can warp to another “campfire” and kill a few lower level enemies you have no fear dying from to get the exp to the next level, so when you go back, you stand to lose nothing if you die.

It is a clever little hack that saves having to lose a ton of exp for nothing.

The skill trees in Sekiro work like a traditional RPG. You level up new skills buy using the gems you have. As you find new weapons and such you unlock completely new skill trees. All of which when fully maxed out give you a uber ability. But grinding them out is no small feat. After playing for about 40 hours, I was still nowhere close to my first uber ability.

On top of this you have a pile of items for you to use and master, and they are integral to success. From ninja flash-bangs (fire crackers) that stun an enemy, to a silly umbrella that is one of the most powerful items in the game as it can block even the biggest of hits when upgraded, it a switchblade like axe that is used to break enemies defensive stances.

All of this is used and balanced with some superb combat design.

You must absolutely master blocking and deflection if you hope to get anywhere in Sekiro. You and the enemies in the game have a stamina meter, the more you block heavy hits, the more you deplete stamina. Deplete a boss all the way, and you can do a crushing move that can kill him (or take his health bar down 1 level) even if he has 90% of his HP. This is really important in fighting bosses, as most of the time the fights are won this way much easier than hit and run tactics.

Beyond the mechanics, the visual in Sekiro are top notch.

On the PS4 Pro the game plays like a dream and looks incredible in HDR. It was give a top notch treatment. There are many dark environments, and with a properly calibrated system the subtle shadows look amazing.

Colors pop and are quiet varied. From fields of yellow to popping red roofs and crystal blue waters. All of this adds up to a perfect visual experience and one of the better looking HDR games out there.

Sounds it self is well done as well, with a subtle musical soundtrack, and great environmental atmosphere it makes the 7.1 channels come alive.

It however did not do too great in the Atmos side, but not too shocking as there is not much happening up above.

All in all Sekiro is not a bad game, it is just no longer MY kind of game. It is a Souls game to its core, but I am just no longer in love with that genre.

In the immortal words of Roger Murtaugh, I am too damn old for this shit….

A solid 8/10 for true Souls fans, and honestly a hard pass if you do not like a hard unforgiving game.

In preparation for playing Kingdom Hearts 3, I took a step into the way back machine and decided to go all in and play the whole damn series over again from the beginning.

As it had been a decade since I last play Kingdom Hearts 2, I could barely remember what happened.

Having touched only Chains of Memory on the Gameboy Advance (yes, THAT long ago) I figured I really needed to visit Sora and the gang again to get the full breadth of experience.

So I dove back in and played them all in order, including watching all the videos from the fantastic mobile game that I had no interest in playing, yet was completely relevant to the Kingdom Hearts lore.

This was a herculean undertaking, with a total of 9 games (2 of which are just available on PS4 as videos) and then another 5 odd hours of youtube cut-scenes you are looking about 120 hours total to go through it all on Easy or Normal modes.

What did I get for the experience?

One of the most amazing video game stories every told.

It is my absolute recommendation that anyone planning to play Kingdom Hearts 3 give this method a go. Sure it will take a while, but hey, why bother playing if you are not a fan of the series? And if so, then why not give yourself the best experience possible.

With all that said and done, I managed to finish up just prior to the release of Kingdom Hearts 3.

So how can you make a game in a franchise that is so beloved after so long and hope for it to be a hit?

I am not sure, but Square-Enix did just that.

Having just played all the previous titles it was clear that KH3 is a perfect evolution of the series.

Combat has change significantly from the days of KH1 (which by contrast feels terrible in retrospect), with things being very fast paced now and well designed.

Not only do you have the standard compliment of skills present in some of the other games, they now add a plethora of “Limit Break” skills that are both good and bad. On one hand they look incredible, they are all designed around classic Disney amusement park rides, from the tea cups, to the giant swinging boat ride.

Now they look amazing on the big screen, and the first time you see them, the visual spectacle will have you watching mouth agape, BUT, but the 40th hour playing, you are totally sick of them. You have ridden the damn boat about 500 times, it is enough already.

Sadly this is the pitfall a lot of games fall into, how do you make some cool special moves without them getting tedious long term. I don;t have the answer, but this was one that KH3 missed on.

With KH3 we also see the love it or hate it Gummi ship return. I personally have always been a fan from the KH1 days, but I can see why people could dislike it. This time round you have full 360 degree free roam game-play.

This plays out in giant sphere shaped worlds, where you travel between worlds, and allows you to have preset encounters on the map. Get close enough to an enemy aircraft and you entry somewhat of a mini-game. Fighting waves of enemies pseudo Galaga style to meet certain conditions. Like shoot down X number of enemies, or to kill so many ships in a time frame. All garnering you a rating and netting you different items the better you do.

On top of this there are some of the games biggest boss fights here, flying against massive enemies and fortresses.

Personally I had a blast with the Gummi areas, the controls were tight and the places you visit fun and fresh.

The core of the game plays out like all the other games, go to a world, trigger different story points, then fight a boss to continue on to other world, all the while giving you snigglets of the overlying story.

One of the big pitfalls though with KH3 is, Square takes for granted you know all about Kingdom Hearts. The story makes little to no sense at all if you are not familiar with the lore.

Without it, it is just a collection of cool places to visit without much point.

That is not to say it is not a good game on its own, but if you are playing for story alone and have not played the other games, you will be lost.

There is a lot of fan service here to those that know the minutia of the Kingdom Hearts universe.

All that said though, we have never had a game that so captures the Disney world, from Toy Story world, to Monsters Inc., it is literally like playing a Pixar movie. It looks out of this world. From the posters in Andy’s room, to the fluffy clouds in Hercules’ realm, it is all meticulously designed and you can see the care that went into making it.

The story itself wraps up almost 20 years of building in a nice neat little package, but still leaves you with some mysteries for the future of the series.

I will not go into detail as I do not want to spoil anything, but almost every question asked over the years gets answered and in a way that makes sense.

My only gripe is for some reason, Square decided to drop 99% of the Final Fantasy side of things from the game. Now only having things like constellations to find in the Gummi ship that are named after Final Fantasy monsters, like Cactar and Toneberries.

It was a big disappointment to not see Cid, Cloud or any of the other band of friends you had over the years. Not sure why they were not included, but it definitely felt like they were missing on purpose.

All in all Kingdom Hearts 3 is a great game, even with its few wart, and it is the game fans have been waiting 10 years for.

A 9.5/10 and a must play for fans of the series.

So this review is a smidgen late, I jumped back into Destiny 2 in September and started over fresh to an extent.

I had never tried Titan or Warlock, and in pursuit of my Platinum trophy, I decided to give them both a shot and it also gave me a chance to go over the story again, something I had not done since Destiny 2 came out in 2017.

It also gave me a chance to see it all again in glorious HDR.

I recent did a full theater re-calibration, which took a good 10-12 hours to get the projector right. Something I had been slacking on for over a year.

The difference in visuals from HDR to SD was huge. Shadow detail was much better, fine little details that would be missed now subtly pop in the dark corners of a room. The increased color pallet is apparent from planet to planet. From the reds of Mars, the greens of EDZ to the glow in the Tower.

It is all richer and more visually impressive with HDR on.

The game itself in my eyes really stood up to the last year.

With major tweaks made by Bungie, many of which I honestly could not tell you, the game and the grind felt not insurmountable.

I played through casually on Warlock to the conclusion of the story, and then again with Titan until you get your 3rd super, that is all that is needed for the progression trophy.

And then I moved back to my true love. My Hunter.

It became immediately apparent that I had no clue how to play hunter any more.

I used to be a gunslinger and now I could not even remember what abilities I would load out.

So I took her for a spin through the 2 expansions (Warmind and Curse of Osiris) to get my Hunter legs back before jumping into Forsaken.

Both DLC were solid. I know a lot of people panned them at the time, but coming in fresh, a year later, they felt like really decent additions.

I decided to forgo the boost that you get with the purchase of Forsaken, and instead grind my way to max level and light level.

Which honestly did not take long at all.

Being so under leveled it was not an issue in the least to rocket up with gear 2 – 3 times my light level on every drop.

So, after all that behind me, I could finally jump into Forsaken.

Bungie has made it no secret that our beloved Cadye-6 was going to die in the game, and withing the first 30 mins, sadly he does.

But there is much more to it than that.

Bungie pulled a total dick move in my eyes. Nathan Fillion has been the voice of Cayde-6 since day one of Destiny.

And for some idiotic reason, they decided to case Troy Baker for his 30 mins of dialog in Forsaken.

Now the two of them sound a lot alike, yet there was this whole creepy imposter feeling to all of it. Like it was not actually Cayde dying, but some cheap doppelganger.

Why Bungie went this way I cannot say, I imagine it had more to do with money than anything else.

But it felt like a colossal slap in the face of Destiny fans everywhere.

Shell out the few extra grand to Nathan, and be done with it. It is not like he had hundreds of lines to drop, it was maybe 2 pages at best (and that includes the narratives he spoke for the Ace of Spades quest)

Beyond that though, the game was really solid. The one act of killing Cadye made you HATE the antagonist beyond reason, so they succeeded in their aim. Piss off the player and make them WANT to kill the big bad.

With the addition of Forsaken, the light level took a heft jump to 600.

Playing through the campaign will land you in the early 500’s (if you do it like I did, when I left in 2017 I was LL 300, max at the time)

This is when you hit the grind wall HARD. Those 2 – 3 LL gear jumps are now a thing aof the past, and you typically get gear 1 LL above you, and the majority of the time, not at all.

How the game shifts at this point though is through all your weekly bounties, and there are plenty.

Everything from Nightfalls, Strike playlist, Crucible, Hawthhorn and Gambit, all of thich net you 1 piece of “Powerful Gear” this is a guaranteed piece of gear a couple levels higher than your max light level.

And there is at least 8 – 10 of these that reset every Tuesday.

So the post game grind, while tedious, is never boring. For me it would take me from Tuesday til Saturday just to get all my bounties done. Then leave me the weekend to play another game, or tackle some of the endgame exotic quests (Like the amazing Wish Ender or Whisper of the Worm)

The endgame also has the new raid, of which I sadly did not get a chance to get into. Time restraints have stopped me from diving into that one for now.

Additionally a vast amount of endgame time will be spend in the new Dreaming City zone. This is where all the high level stuff takes place.

You will also find yourself likely enjoying the incredible Gambit PVP + PVE mode.

A first in the FPS genre, Bungie added a new mode that pits you 4 v 4 against waves of enemies in a pseudo hoard mode, collecting dropped motes of light and depositing them into a tank. When you dunk them, it sends taken to the other side and locks the opposing teams tank.

Deposit enough motes, and you summon a Primeval boss, kill it first to win.

But there is a catch.

A portal to your match will open to the opposing team, and they will be trying to kill you as well. And every kill they get on you, heals the boss.

So it is a constant cat and mouse game, balance and struggle. Do you focus all 4 on the boss to burn him fast, do you send a poison pill to the other team and stop them from summoning their boss.

All in all it is one of the most enjoyable PVP modes I have played in nearly a decade. And truth be told I am not a PVP gamer at all anymore.

Forsaken has done a good thing for Destiny 2. It has breathed new life into the game, and at the same time made it mush more hardcore appealing.

When I left Destiny 2 in 2017, it was pretty sad at how much it catered to the casual.

This Destiny no longer feels like that.

You can still be a casual and play, but now you have to earn your gear, it is not just gifted to you like a participation trophy.

That may be distasteful to some, but in my eye, why are you even playing the game if you are just sitting around waiting to be handed all the good loot.

Anyway, I digress.

If you are a FPS fan, even a solo story kind like myself, there is a ton of value in Forsaken and Destiny 2 as a whole for you.

Last thing I will touch on is the sound presentation.

This is a mixed bag, and always has been.

Out in the wilds of the galaxy, the sound is outstanding. The winds of mars, the energy of Venus, you can hear and feel it all around you in simulated Atmos.

Where it falls flat though is in the Tower, they have never fixed the positional audio of Tess and the Eververse for one. When you are even remotely close to her, she is shouting in your ear. You can even be in the hangar and in the right place still hear her. Same for Zavalah and the gang. It is bloody annoying.

I find I have to turn my audio down about 10db in the Tower and still it is a pain.

Fingers crossed this gets fixed at some point, but I feel like that ship has sadly sailed now.

A very solid 9/10, and with hundreds of hours of content, for a low price, it is a no brainer for a FPS fan.

From the minute I fired up the first game and stepped into the role of Desmond, I was in love and saw something completely unique and special, and hoped that this could lead to something more.

Now having played 16 previous Assassin’s Creed games, using the term fanboy for me is warranted and a bit under stated.

I have been here for the good time (AC2) and the bad (AC: Unity) I have seen the games evolve and morph with the times, mechanics change and grow over the years.

Story lines die for no reason, and new heroes arise.

So after 16 years and 16 games, how does a franchise still keep things real and unique? You launch a game like Odyssey, that’s how.

They have taken a decade and a half worth of formula, and put it in a pressure cooker. Taken most of what is good about the series and squeezed out a diamond.

For those not interested in reading the rest of this, I will tell you right now, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is one of the best games in the series, and save yourself 10 mins going over my review, and just go buy it.

For those still here, here we go.

This is hands down one of the biggest games Ubisoft has ever made.

On paper, sure Black Flag had more map to discover, but when 75% of it is water, it is not a big feat.

Odyssey on the other hand is mostly explorable land mass, sure there is a pile of ocean as well, but the land masses in the game are so densely populated with things to do and explore, it trumps any other game on the market for content by a wide margin.

For Example, here is about 80% of the full game map:

Here is just the red circle from above:

Every icon on the map is something to do. Chests to sneak in and get, people to kill, side quest to attain.

There are very likely 1000+ points like this spread over the map.

And this does not even take into account the main story, or the random things that pop up like mercenaries to kill, cult members to hunt, etc.

I went for a full 100% play-through, meaning that I revealed every single point of interest, and completed all locations.

This took me a full 120 hours to do.

And even though I am technically finished, Ubisoft is still reveling weekly new content, and not to mention new DLC for season pass holders.

The game for the first time ever allows you a choice of protagonists. You can choose a male of female character, both twins and both are identical in terms of skill tree and such, it is just an aesthetic change and a voice change pretty much.

That said, I was thrilled by the performance that Kassandra did. There has never been a more believably charismatic protagonist. She was simply amazing. From her humor to her fury, it was all very believable.

Slight Spoiler Alert

You should note whomever you do not pick to play, becomes the antagonist in the game. So pick wisely.

End Spoiler

I am glad I didn’t pick Helios though, because if his performance on the other side of things was any indication, he was kind of a cold dead fish. To me at least. Where Kassandra seethes with realism, Helios is the typical yell all the time video game jerk.

The story takes you all over Greece, chasing your past, killing your demons and at the very core, is a touching game about family. Hard to fathom that in the midst of a murder simulator you can have emotional attachments and moments.

The “real world” portion of the game was a bit of a mixed bag. Ubisoft said prior to release that the real world segments were going to factor in more heavily in Odyssey, something I was very much looking forward to as that is one of my favorite part of the series, and a major sore point for me that the real world side has primarily moved into the comics and out of the games.

Unfortunately, this is a big lie in part by Ubi, there is exactly 3 real world scenes in the game. 2 of them playable, one a cut-scene only.

And of the 2, one is gated behind one of the better side stories in the game, but will however be generally missed by most people unless you are a completionist.

What you get for that completion however is one of the best “real world” segments in the game since the days of Assassin’s Creed 2.

It also foreshadows the upcoming DLC Atlantis coming next spring. So we may be seeing more of Layla then I presume.

The core of the game has change a lot into what can best be described as an action RPG. With level grinding elements and gear progression and upgrades, to RNG drops and chests.

A lot of people complained that the game felt too grindy, and felt that because Ubisoft would sell you a EXP booster that they intentionally made the game grindy.

This friends is pure and utter bullshit.

If you play the game, and do not try to rush it or speed run it, you have plenty of opportunity to progress normally without ever reaching a point of not having a high enough level to continue.

Sure if you skip 100% of the side quests and choose not to explore anything except to go from point A to point B in the story, you will run into places that are gated, but good God people, you are now complaining that you have to actually PLAY the game you spent $80 on.

How stupid an argument….

If Ubi had not sold you the option to EXP boost would this have even been a thing in media? Not a chance.

But I digress.

The skill tree is HUGE in Odyssey and just though normal playthrough to level 70, you will still not unlock 100% of the skills in the game.

But on a positive note, you can simply reset your choice and get all your points back to reallocate if you feel you picked some crappy skills:

Visuals in this game were jaw droppingly beautiful. When presented in 4k and HDR, the image is outstanding.

There is a lot of dark carve and crypt exploration in Odyssey, and subtle shadows dancing in the dark in HDR look stunning, crisp and clear.

The sound itself in emulated Atomos though was a mixed bag. The Marantz 8805 had a hard time placing people and ambient noise sometimes. When a character was behind you, they would often come through the rear ceiling channels.

Not sure if this is the fault of the receiver for not being able to push the sound to the right location (because it is fake emulating Atmos) or if the location flags in the audio track were just too unclear for the game to separate properly.

Over all I believe Odyssey to be the 2^nd best game in the franchise, behind AC2. Which is high praise to reach in a series that has 16 games before it (not counting mobile)

If this is the new standard for Assassin’s Creed games, it is a welcome direction to go in.

An absolute 10/10 and a must play for not just AC fans, but also for anyone who like massive sandbox games.

So last year I upgraded to a AV8802, and while it was an amazing receiver, it still lacked a few things I had on a wish list in the back of my mind.

One of the major things was when I moved to Atmos, I lost the ability to use my front Height speakers and my Wides.

The unit had only 11.2 hook ups, which in honesty is way more than most, but it still was a sticking point as I had these speakers here that I had not used for over a year now.

So when they announced the AV8805 would have 15.2 hook ups, and 13.2 live signal processing, I was intrigued, but honestly still not 100% sold.

The 8802 had cost a good chunk of change, so I had not real intention to snag the 8805.

Once I started to see the reviews dropping about some of the extras, I was sold hook line and sinker.

One of the biggest upgrades in my eyes was the ability to use the new Audyessy app to configure, calibrate and tweak, and additionally swap back and forth between calibration files.

Now I will preface this with 2 things, one it does not work perfect for everyone.

I personally have not had a single issue with the app, but if you look at the comments and reviews on it, there are a lot of unhappy folks.

My take on it is, a lot of these people are in no way tech savvy at all.

I get that they bought an expensive piece of audio equipment, but that does not mean they know their ass from a hole in the ground when trying to get things in your house networked and talking.

As the primary complaint is connectivity, and that is almost solely dictated by your equipment and know how, it is easy to see that most people having problems have no clue how to use the tech.

But I digress.

Second, and this one really pissed me off. The MutilEQ app is not free. For me in Canada it was $35 (27.99 in the US)

Now I just bought a $6000cdn receiver, seriously, we need to pay another $35 to use it to its fullest?

This is a blatant money grab by Marantz, and one I am rather grossed out by.

Especially since as many folks claim, they have issues with it, and support from what I have read is non-existent.

Major oversight, or colossal FU to the customer, not sure which it is, but either way it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth.

/rant

The application itself is a dream to use. Gone are the days of navigating the menu on the small screen, or relying on the display output to clunkily go through the setup.

Fire up the app, connect to your receiver, and then begin the config.

It is actually really user friendly given what you are doing here.

The prompts all look familiar as it is pretty much the OSD calibration, just in the app.

Once you roll through your setup and get the readings from the 8 locations, the file is saved on the app and ready to go.

What I did not realize out of the gate is you have to actually tell it to upload to your 8805. I was a little surprised that once I was done, and checked the receiver none of the Audyessy stuff was applied.

This part was not really clear in the app.

So once finished, you choose where to send the file, this can also be to external storage like google cloud services and such.

Once things are calibrated, and before you upload, I would highly recommend looking at the post configuration of each speaker and levels.

This is where the tweaker paradise comes in.

You can go channel by channel and adjust the frequency bumps as you see fit, you can see how well the room correction was applied. And get an overall sense of how good or bad you room is acoustically.

Now I have a fully treated room for 1^st reflection point on all speakers. As well as diffusers on the back wall, and bass traps in the back corners.

And as you can see in the pictures below, my well treated room is still a bloody mess.

Here you can see the Front Left Channel, this has total treatment for 1^st reflection:

Here is the Center Channel, should have no reflection here due to location:

Here we have the dual subs, this is one of the biggest fixes, having dual units is very hard to calibrate yourself, and their placement can be really tough at times.

The Audyssey cleans this up near perfectly:

Now I do have one major gripe about how the calibration is handled here.

So the way Audyessy works is you set your speakers up, be that 7.1, 11.2, 7.2.6, whatever you please, then you run Audyessy calibration.

The issue is that if anything changes with your speaker config, then you have to do a re-calibration.

So, in the case of the 8805, you can only have 13.2 channels active at one time. So you have a choice to make.

You set it up as say 9.2.4 so it includes your wides and 4 ceiling speakers. Or you set it up as 7.2.6 to include all 6 ceiling speakers and leave the wides out.

There is no way to do a one time, 15.2 speaker calibration.

Now to compensate for this, the app itself allows you to save multiple calibration files. Which kind of saves the day here.

The problem is that should you choose to switch back and forth, it is not a fast task, it can take 5-10 mins to transfer the calibration file to the 8805 from the tablet application.

So, there is no easy A/B test if you are trying to find out what mode sounds best for a particular movie.

Besides that, little oversight on Marantz part, the unit is a dream to own.

There is nothing I have not thrown at it that has not been presented with pure audio and video bliss.

I primarily use my theater for gaming. I would say it is about 80% gaming, 10% movies, 10% tv.

When it comes to games things both look and sound phenomenal.

I run in Dolby + Surround mode 90% of the time, to allow for a faux Atmos processing to be done. Throwing sound to the ceiling channels in some games sounds incredible.

Your room goes from being 2d to 3d in a click.

With games like Destiny 2 the upper level comes alive, ships flying over, bullets overhead, etc.

There are a few instances where this does not work well though.

As this is just emulating Atmos, and it is only an approximation, things can get thrown to the ceiling that should not.

For instance, in Destiny 2, some of the NPC characters in the Tower when positioned behind you, will en up om the rear ceiling channel shouting down at you.

But all in all, I see the benefit more so than the annoyance, more often than not it sounds great.

When it comes to movies though, things are outstanding.

Movies like Logan, the forest scene feels like you are right there, the wind rushing through the trees above you, the room is just alive.

I have yet to watch a movie that has not been enhanced by having all 6 channels overhead active.

Video has presented no hiccups either. With full 4k 4:4:4 pass-through I have not had a single handshake issue to day.

I have run it through the paces with 3d, 4k and SD and it all comes through just fine.

Unfortunately, I cannot speak to the advance media features though. The unit has tons of options for streaming services, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Pandora, Spotify, SiriusXM, Amazon Prime Music, TIDAL.

None of which I sue as I have a HTPC hooked up.

Other features include full HEOS support, so you can do direct voice control for the unit if you wish via Amazon Alexa or Google Assist.

This really is the Swiss army knife of receivers.

While this is definitely one of the more expensive receivers on the market, it is hands down the most robust, sure you can look to some higher end AV manufacturers, you would however be hard pressed to find another unit out there that provides all the bells and whistles the Marantz 8805 has.

In upgrading to the 8805 I also took the opportunity to switch over my amplifiers for a couple reasons.

I used to be a 100% Rotel guy, for a good 8 years all my equipment was Rotel, that is until they did not keep up with tech and were way out of date on their receivers, that is ultimately what drove me to Marantz.

So over the years I have been toying with picking up a pair of MM7055’s and a MM8077.

This would allow me to move away from my dual RMB-1095’s and my RMB-1090 2 channel amp.

Part of the move was due to the place I am at now with my usage and listening.

When I bought the amps way back in 2002 I was using my system for 50-60% music. SO 2 channel was king for me.

The 1095 offered 350w per channel and my Def Tech BP2000TL speakers were made for being driven VERY hard.

So the need was there.

As years past, and music became way less important, to me, and movies and gaming took the front stage. It no longer made sense to have these seriously over powered amps. They were overkill, and additionally they were huge power sucks.

So when one of my Rotel RMB-1095s started acting flaky a couple years ago, I grabbed a MM7055 demo unit from Best buy for a steal.

Since then I have been toying with the idea of going full Marantz.

And I can safely say I am glad I did.

The clarity of the amps and 150 and 140 wpc is fantastic. The sound is warm and right, and dialog through my center channel sounds even cleaner to my ears than the old 1095 produced.

So now my Rotel days are behind me and my future with Marantz is looking very very bright!

One last thing I want to mention about the 8805. Some of you may be concerned about future-proofing with the new HDMI 2.1 format on the horizon.

Well Marantz has officially committed to having the ability to upgrade this receiver when the time comes. It will be a paid upgrade, at a marginal cost, or so they say.

The unit would need to be sent to Marantz as it is a major update and not just a board swap, and they say it is expected to be available sometime in 2020 once the 2.1 spec has been finalized.

If you are a movie buff or game enthusiast like I am with a big enough dedicated space to accommodate a full theater, you own it to your ears to pick up one of these receivers.

You will not be disappointed in the least.

A solid 10/10 and one of the best pieces of audio equipment I have ever owned.

So this year at the EA press conference at E3, we got a sudden surprise.

A stand out indie title from 2017 was magically getting a sequel, and surprise, it was due out the day of the announcement.

This was met with a bit of mixed emotions.

Unravel 1 was a real stand out game, a passion project by its creator, to tell a story of loss and love, a tale of missed opportunities and connections to one another.

So when we got a sequel out of left field, to a game that really said all it needed to, it was a little odd.

Unravel 2 is a mixed bag.

The heart and soul from the first game are gone, which I cannot help but feel is EA’s doing, now just rah rah EA sucks, but it definitely has a commercialize feel to it that was not in the first one, where pt 1 was so intimate and feeling.

Part 2 is just polished and sterile.

Now does that make it a bad game?

No not at all, it is just a different game. And should be approached as such.

Not so much a sequel, and just another new game.

This time around Yarnie has a new buddy. A mirror image of himself in a different color (of which can be completely customized this time)

So for one, the game can be played entirely co-op on the couch.

Best I can tell the overlying story is about 2 friends or brothers and their attempt to run away from something or someone bad. Hard to tell really as the story is a lot more disjointed than the first game.

The puzzles though and level traversal are top notch.

They all factor in the 2 players, or trickily single player in my case.

Where you have to really step back and think though some puzzles portions.

Even though it could be 100% solo friendly, I sincerely think the experience would have been much better with a partner.

You essentially meld your two characters together to continue as one until you have a time to pop apart and solve a puzzle. This can be a real pain, something as simple as one Yarine standing on a switch and the other bouncing up to grab a ledge gets a little tricky.

It would have been a simple maneuver as a pair, but solo you are fast switching characters to try to make it work.

It all worked out in the end, and provided a fun Saturday afternoon, clocking in at about 4 hours it is a perfect cold winter day game to blast through on a single day.

The sound in this game caught me by surprise, it was MUCH better than expected. The environmental effects sounded amazing in simulated Atmos. The rain, the wind, the whole ceiling was alive with ambient noise.

Visually though, I think the first game came across as a better look and fit. Again, this game had some big developer clout behind it, and that organic, earthy feel of part one was gone here, in a trade off of polish, that took that “real” feeling out of the world.

All in all a fun game, not as good as the first, but still a fun game to play.

A decent 7/10 and a recommendation for any couch co-op fans out there.

So if Astro Bot Rescue has taught me anything, it is that I sincerely wish that Nintendo would throw its hat into the VR arena.

Astro Bot Rescue is in every single way a perfect game, a 10/10, no questions asked.

It feels like a direct sequel to Mario 64 mixed with Super Mario Galaxy all rolled into a perfect package.

There is so many elements ripped right from the pages of Nintendo I am stunned they are not getting sued.

To date, we have not had a more polished and visually stunning VR game. Many have tried, and even amazing stand outs like Resident Evil 7 all suffer from the low res blues that is common with so many VR games.

Bland textures, grainy darkness, and horrible edges that look like teeth on a chainsaw.

Next to none of that is present in in ABR.

All 5 in game worlds are unique, and offer typical Mario like experiences. From ice worlds, under water levels, to the final worlds lava filled jump fest. It is all here in spades, and all works so bloody perfectly.

The controls are a perfect mix of both traditional 3^rd person platforming, and a mix of VR touches from using your head to break barricades and kill enemies, to your controller becoming a Swiss army knife of tools.

It is worth mentioning too, that controller integration in Astro Bot is the best I have ever seen in VR.

Each level you “snap” your controller to a mold on screen, and it is rendered just like your DS3 controller in you hands, except all shiny and with glowing buttons.

You see the sticks move in VR 1 to 1. Same for button presses.

As you rescue your little stranded robot buddies, they fly around the screen and ultimately land and reside in your controller.

It is a real cool sight to behold.

The gadgets you acquire too are very well designed, from throwing stars you throw by sliding your hand over the touch pad, to a water cannon that is used to grow flowers or put out fire enemies.

Traveling through the 5 worlds that encompass 20 levels, and 5 boss fights was pure joy.

I could not wait to get to the next level to see what they had come up with.

The water levels we so incredibly well crafted and the fluid effects were just stunning.

And the boss fights themselves had an amazing sense of scale and depth. Be it fighting a giant King Kong like gorilla, or a shark the size of a Megalodon.

Sound presentation was outstanding as well, with a soundtrack that has been stuck in my head for days, to the sound of your rescued buddies flying overhead and behind you, it truly shines in simulated Atmos.

For the collector out there, there is a ton to do as well.

You have 8 robots to rescue spread over 20 levels. A hidden chameleon in each of those 20 levels, which unlocks a bonus challenge stage per each reptile.

As well there is a play area in which you can spend your coins in a claw game machine to unlock collectable statues (over 110). But it goes farther than that.

In the play areas you can go to each of the world from the claw games collections, and the items you collect will appear as interactive play toys.

So you are pretty much collecting things to build your play world.

Lastly is the challenge levels. 20 in total, that consist of a pile of short games spread over the 20 levels from the game. From timed races to gadget challenges to redoing the boss fights with a perfect goal in mind. All garnering you another 2 rescued bots each.

My only negative about Astro Bot is it was over in a heartbeat.

While clocking in at about 6 hours, it was still too short and I wish there was 50 more levels to play.

I hope Sony uses this success of ABR to spin up a new VR franchise, because I could see myself playing Astro Bot for a lot of years to come if they do.

An amazing 10/10 and a 100% must own for all PSVR users. You will not be sorry.