Rainbow Six Siege - CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THIS GAME!!!

 Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Source: Ubisoft

Rainbow Six Siege is something to behold, especially on the Playstation 4. In fact, I'm playing this game pretty much every single day!

The premise?

Source: Ubisoft

The game follows a team of operators that thwart the operations of a secret terroristic organization. Similar to other 1st-person shooter games like Modern Warfare and Call of Duty, you can fight the bad guys solo, or team up with other players online to do so.

Source: Ubisoft

You play as different characters (or what they call "Operators). Each operator has their own abilities, weapons, and accolades. The operators are divided into two groups: Attackers and Defenders.

• Attackers are operators that go into combat with enemy attackers, whether you're eliminating them, rescuing a hostage, or disabling a bomb.
• Defenders are operators that protect a hostage from waves and waves of enemies.

So far, the Attackers I'm currently using are Ash, Thermite, Thatcher, and Sledge. (Well, I really like Thermite and Sledge, because their weapons and grenades are very useful.) As for Defenders, I currently have Smoke - he's my only Defender so far in the game (and there's a reason for that).

Source: Ubisoft

Now, the game has various modes, especially in the tutorial section of the game (which helped me a lot when I had first started playing this game). However, the available modes are the following:

• Elimination - Where you eliminate enemy shooters
• Extract Hostage - Enter an establishment (i.e., a house, a building, etc.) to rescue a hostage from the enemies, and take them to the extraction point
• Disarm Bomb - Enter a place and disarm a bomb while enemies are coming at you
• Defend Hostage - Stay with a hostage inside a room, and try your best to barricade the place and defend the hostage from waves and waves of enemies

Of all the above scenarios, I found myself mostly great at the Elimination and Extract Hostage solo matches. Though, being good at the Extract Hostage scenario was a surprise to me, because I never thought that I would be great at that to begin with. I honestly thought I would be the worst hostage rescuer ever - but I've somehow won more solo matches in that mode than Elimination mode! (Can you imagine!)

(20 enemies in that solo match!)

(22 enemies, in this solo match!)

As for the other two modes, Disarm Bomb and Defend Hostage, those are my weak points. In fact, the way I see it, those two modes are best played with a team, rather than play them solo. In that way, you'll have more than one pair of eyes, as you get ready for enemies to come after you in the game. (But more power to those who have actually won solo matches in Disarm Bomb and Defend Hostage modes!)

So, it's been nearly a month since I've started playing this game, and it's so addicting! I started playing this game on my birthday this past June, and it's amazing to see how great I've gotten at Rainbow Six!

And guess what? I heard that Rainbow Six Extraction is coming soon: January 2022, I believe. I can't wait to check that out soon!

Anyway, back to Rainbow Six!

Until next time, ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (...I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

"The House of the Dead" Remake Coming to the Switch!

 Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Courtesy: Forever Entertainment/Nintendo

Back in the day (Yes, I'm actually saying that, because I'm not a kid anymore), I would visit the arcade section of the Mayan Palace 14 movie theater. I remember playing many arcade games, including the 1996 first-person shooter The House of the Dead.

I remember spending so many quarters playing that game - I even went as far as getting past the first two monster bosses! (How many quarters was that? I don't know. LOL!)

Anyway, The House of the Dead was one of many nostalgic games that I've played in my youth. However, most recently (yesterday, April 14, 2021), I learned that the game was being remade for the Nintendo Switch - or, as IGN puts it a "zombie facelift."

Courtesy: IGN

I watched the minute-long trailer, and I was amazed. Not only was I amazed, but a flood of nostalgia took over. Those days of feeding quarters into an arcade machine, reloading the attached gun by shooting outside of the game's TV screen, and taking on waves and waves of monsters and zombies …

So, now that I've seen the trailer to the remake, there are many questions that I have so far:

1. Will players have to use the Joy-Cons (the Switch controllers) to simulate the game's traditional gun peripherals, and have them aim the Joy-Cons outside of the screen to reload?
2. When should we expect this remake? (Release date?)
3. When can consumers pre-order the game (at the very least)?

Now, neither Nintendo or Forever Entertainment has announced a release date, other than posting that the game will be released sometime in 2021. But I'm hoping that The House of the Dead Remake is well-polished and bug-free before its release, so that fans like myself are happy for the anticipation. (Besides, we don't want another Cyberpunk 2077 incident.)

But until then ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

Immortals Fenyx Rising - Gods and Monsters in An Open-World Game

Courtesy: Ubisoft

It's thanks to my finally buying a PS4 that this blog post on Immortals Fenyx Rising exists!

Hoi, allemaal! Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (Hi, everyone! I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

First and foremost, I had managed to get a Playstation 4, so that I can play more video games (besides Nintendo Switch and PC). While I have created a list of games to try on the PS4, Ubisoft's Immortals Fenyx Rising was one of them. Yes, it took me two issues of Game Informer (Issues 331 and 332), along with the trailers and gameplay videos on YouTube to realize that I NEEDED to try out the game myself. 

At first glance, the game looked good, and sounded good. An open-world game with third-person combat, colorful graphics, and a story of epic proportions? I needed a break from Fortnite for a good while. Little did I know that I was going to get my money's worth with Immortals Fenyx Rising.

Upon getting a PS4, Immortals Fenyx Rising was (and is) the very first PS4 game that I've ever purchased in my life. The video game slid out of the Amazon packaging gracefully, as I held it in my hands. The video game box looked gorgeous in detail to where I could make out the drool coming out of the gaping mouth of the cyclops on the front cover. Upon opening the box, there was the game disc (which felt quite nostalgic to me, seeing that I had grown up with computer games, a Nintendo Gamecube and a PS2), which was a much-needed break from some of the games that I've bought digitally for the Switch.

*By the way, I was tempted to buy Immortals Fenyx Rising for the Switch, but wanted an excuse to buy a PS4.*

Once I had set up my PS4 (playing God of War beforehand), I pop in Immortals Fenyx Rising and boy, was I amazed!

The visuals were stunning up close - from the skies to the vegetation to the ruins of Greek temples. Despite not being as detailed as games like God of War, it was more serious in detail than, say, Fortnite.

Plus, while I'm not too crazy about the game's storyline (despite the comic narration from Prometheus, with constant commentary and interjections from Zeus), I'll give you the premise:

An evil titan named Typhon, who was locked away for conspiring against the Greek gods, is finally able to escape his prison, and take out his wrath on the human world. In his vengeance, Typhon manages to place a powerful curse on the other gods by locking away their essences in different parts of Olympus. As a last resort, seeing that many of the gods and heroes are under Typhon's curse, Zeus consults another god named Prometheus, who tells him the story of a mortal named Fenyx (much to Zeus's dismay of Prometheus's storytelling, in general).

Now, here's the interesting part...

When we first see Fenyx, players are tasked to customize the look, gender, and clothes of Fenyx. In my case, I wanted Fenyx to be a girl with short black hair, along with some scars on her face.

Now that Fenyx is established - no matter how you customize him or her - the story continues. Fenyx survives a shipwreck, and he (or she) learns that everyone on the island has been turned into stone by Typhon, including his (or her) brother. So, seeing that he (or she) must save his (or her) brother - along with other people on the island - Fenyx eventually enlists the help of the god Hermes (By the way, I won't spoil how Fenyx meets Hermes - You'll need to know some Greek mythology to be like "Oh! Okay, I get it!").

In this open-world game, Fenyx is tasked to free the other gods from Typhon's curse, and fight off Typhon's minions and creatures on the island. As you progress in the game, you'll be able to upgrade your gear, your weapons, your health and stamina, and so on (which you can do once you unlock the Hall of the Gods).

Plus, every so often, you'll be tasked to enter the Underworld through volcanic entrances. 

Now, the Underworld - which I had coined "Planet Underworld" - is interesting. 

Let's just say that if you're good with puzzles, and you have the patience to try and solve one, then Typhon's Underworld is the place to be. In my case, there were plenty of puzzles that took serious thought and patience to solve, which is a good thing, because that's what puzzles are supposed to do: make you think and have patience with what you're doing. For me, this was nothing new, since I've played iOS games like Fireproof Games' The Room series, which also had puzzles that made you think. Anyway, completing the courses and puzzles in the Underworld are mandatory, since they help you progress in the game, especially when your character is called upon to save the Greek gods.

So, that's all I have for you on the game SO FAR. All I can say now is that I want to play more of it. Believe it or not, there was a point where I had checked the saved game data in the "Save Options" menu, and it said, "12 hours" (almost 13!). 

(Well, by now, it grew to around 16 hours of gameplay. To be fair, I played four times within a week of having this game. So, I would say, I had spent at least 4 hours playing at different intervals within a week. That's crazy!) 

All I can say is that whether it says 12 or 16 hours of gameplay, I guarantee you that this game is addictive. 

From the open-world experience, to the gameplay itself, it's easy to get sucked in, and not put the controller down.

So, until next time ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I'm the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Valve Index VR Kit (Steam)

Just as I had posted about the Playstation 5's offering for virtual reality, I was surprised to see that the digital gaming distribution service Steam also has a VR kit. 

Courtesy: IGN

Steam currently has a VR set called the Value Index VR Kit on sale on their website. 

Now, I'm no stranger to buying games on Steam. In fact, Steam was where I had bought the Five Nights at Freddy's games, along with the Dragon's Lair games for PC. While I can't say that I'm a hardcore PC gamer, I still see plenty of value in playing certain PC games. But now, with virtual reality already transforming the gaming industry as we know it - by letting players be fully immersed in various game worlds - many gaming companies are trying to cash in on the craze - and Steam is one of them!

So, when I had first learned about Steam's offering to VR, I was curious. I liked how the controllers are structured to ensure that players get a firm grip on them as they play. 

Though, I was disappointed to see that the price tag for the Valve Index VR is nearly $1,000 - way too pricy for something that currently has no user reviews on Steam. 

So, how can we trust that the product is worth buying? In other words, how can you justify a near-$1,000 price tag for a VR set … when the Oculus Quest 2 currently has a retail price of between $299 and $399 (depending on how many gigabytes that you want for memory storage)? So, to price Valve Index VR at nearly $1,000 is a red flag.

As for me, I'll wait it out before investing in a VR set. I would like to try out virtual reality, but only when the time is right.

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

FIRST IMPRESSION: PS5's VR 2.0 Controllers

 Hoi, allemaal! (Hi, everyone!)

Courtesy: IGN

Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on the Playstation 5's latest product - the new VR controllers.  

Courtesy: Gamespot

I just got done reading Gamespot's article introducing the special controllers for virtual-reality play for the PS5.

To be honest here, I wasn't much fond of what the previous VR controllers looked like - they looked like magic wands at first glance. However, with the upcoming VR controllers for the PS5, these seem to allow more natural movement from the gamer. 

Courtesy: Sony Playstation

Almost shaped like boxing gloves, these controllers seem more logical than Nintendo's JoyCons, which require players to use straps on the wrists to keep the JoyCons from slipping from one's grip when playing.

So, if I ever get a chance to get the PS5 - once scalpers don't charge over $1,000 for the console, that is - I would give this VR feature a try. However, I'm still curious about the Oculus 2, if whether or not that VR brand will be competing against the PS5's VR offering pretty soon. 

In the meantime, the PS4 still looks promising, when it comes to the current games that are in the market. That doesn't mean that I won't try virtual reality - I'm open to trying it out someday.

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

UPDATE: gamer_vrouw's VICTORY ROYALE in Season 6, Chapter 2 of Fortnite!

Courtesy: Epic Games

You heard right!

I never thought I would get a Victory Royale that easily in the latest season of Fortnite. What happened was I played one match on the season premiere (March 16, 2021). And then today (March 17, 2021 - Happy St. Patrick's Day, by the way), I played one match. But it was the second match of the day (the third match played in the new season so far...), I was able to reach 1st place. 

No, really! 

(Achievement says "Won One: Legacy Updated!" meaning that this was my 1st Victory Royale in the new season of Fortnite)

When that achievement icon blinked on screen, I was amazed. In fact, I went as far as screenshotting the victory on my Nintendo Switch, as shown on this blog post!

Best of luck to everyone else on this new season of Fortnite!

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)

Fortnite Season 6, Chapter 2 - From Zero Point Crisis To Primal!

Courtesy: Epic Games

March 16, 2021 marked the start of Season 6, Chapter 2 of Fortnite - a battle-royale game with over 350 million players worldwide, as of May 2020.

The previous chapter had players like myself wonder what's in store for the next update. In fact, I found myself going on Fortnite every single day until the previous chapter's finale. So, how was my experience? Well, I have the screenshots, courtesy of the Nintendo Switch!

THE BUILD-UP

February, and even going into the first half of March, was spent wondering what the mysterious Zero Point sphere might do, in the event that it ... well, I had my theories. 

(Taken from my gameplay on Nintendo Switch)

Some of my theories were:

• The sphere would explode, taking the whole island with it, thus creating some sort of apocalypse, one similar to the infamous "World's End" event back in 2019, which had players speculating whether or not the game would go back online. OR,
• The sphere will change the island into some other world, thus kicking off the new season.

To be fair, my second theory was partially right. The sphere did change the island ... but not in the way that I had expected.

Anyway, as time went on, I couldn't help but look up at the sky every so often to see how the Zero Point ball was faring. 

(The character I'm using in this gameplay is Venom - one of the skins from the previous season with the Marvel heroes and villains.) 

Every once in a while, the Zero Point sphere would pulse, especially the strains that cling to different parts of the island like meat hooks. 

I had so many questions in mind on how the season would end. My imagination ran wild for a good while, as I played throughout the season.

JUST DAYS BEFORE...

If you don't know the story thus far, Agent Jonesy is the guy in the trailers that had rounded up characters from The Walking Dead, Halo, Predator, and so on. It was then when they've introduced a gameplay feature where you can hunt players down - or be hunted by other players - and earn gold bars from completed bounties. The season mainly circled around the Mandalorian from the Star Wars franchise (and the Disney+ series of the same name).

So when Agent Jonesy tries to obtain information about "the Seven," he is denied access. 

(We hear this in two different audio files when the game is launched on two different days.) Soon, he decides to take matters into his own hands.

THE NIGHT BEFORE...

I was lucky to get into a solo match before Fortnite's scheduled downtime, which was 12:00 AM ET on March 16 (since I'm in CT - central time - that meant 11:00 PM CT). 

There was no doubt that the Zero Point energy was going berserk. My job at that time was to take as many screenshots on the Switch as possible because that was probably the last time that I would see the island in such a state, such a landscape - with the Zero Point crystals sticking out of the ground, and illuminating and humming with vibrant energy.

My solo match was hard-fought to where I was literally "hunting" my opponent. Although I had managed to place 2nd in the match, these last few minutes of gameplay before downtime was totally worth it!

NEW SEASON. NEW CHAPTER. 

The next day. March 16, 2021. I was hoping for the best in the latest update on Fortnite. 

But first ... I had to download the update on my Nintendo Switch. 

About an hour later, I launched the game.

The first thing you see ... a cinematic of Jonesy defying orders, and running past dueling characters to get to the Zero Point sphere. 

He throws an orb at the sphere, and a large asteroid hits the ground, revealing a mysterious character in black and red known as the Foundation. 

The stranger reluctantly agrees to help Jonesy control the Zero Point energy. 

Now, this is where things get exciting!

As promised, the game does let you play in this single-player mode where you're tasked to close up the portals with the orb, while changing into various characters (while Jonesy is accidentally changed into a butterfly for some reason). 

For me, the gameplay mechanics were simple: run and close portals. Though, closing portals is easier for PC players, because that part was a little tricky when I had to move my thumb on the right joystick just to close it up "like a zipper." 

Plus, time was obviously at the essence, so I was struggling to close up the portals, as instructed by Jonesy.

As for the rest of the gameplay, you're teleported from place to place; and the next thing you know, you're flying up to a tower, and then racing up it. On top, you'll find the Foundation struggling to contain the Zero Point energy. 

After throwing the orb at the Zero Point sphere, everything fades to white. 

Afterwards, the trailer to the new season plays.

As you can tell, the theme for the new season is "Primal," meaning that there's a wild vibe to the game world. While I wasn't too crazy about the new theme, I was still looking forward to trying it out.

GAMEPLAY IN NEW SEASON

The gameplay was like usual, with only changes to the landscape, along with newer weapons which you can somehow craft into different ones. 

(I guess they brought back the crafting stations from the previous seasons...?) 

I had a little trouble with the crossbow weapon, but a little practice will take the edge off it after a while.

While I was able to place 7th in my first match in the new season, I was surprised to get 3 accomplishments during the match.

So, yes, Season 6, Chapter 2 is up and running on Fortnite; and I can't wait to play some more!

But until then ...

Ik ben de gamer_vrouw! (I am the gamer_vrouw!)

Dag! (Bye!)