An Elden Ring review in the year of our Elden Lord, 2024? Yes! Because it took me a while to play it.

While I only have limited experience in the “Soul’s” genre, that being ‘Dark Souls 3’ and now ‘Elden Ring’, they have cemented themselves as some of my favourite gaming experiences. Mastering a video game’s mechanics is a very satisfying feeling and whilst I have certainly not mastered Elden Ring, I felt myself getting better as I progressed and continued playing. This to me is the quintessential experience of a video game.

Elden Ring drops you almost immediately into the open world and at that point go nuts. The open world is definitely the strong aspect of this game and that itself is enough to sink hours upon hours with multiple playthroughs. Every nook and cranny could be hiding a secret item or enemy, the world even has different encounters depending on the time of day. The world is teeming with things to do and, more importantly, things to kill.

There is a correct path to follow, but I found myself exploring as much as I could and going to whatever destination I could find. If it’s your first time playing, this is the way to play. I was discovering side missions and NPCs that gave me great rewards for doing certain things or clearing particular locations. Or you could just kill the NPCs and take their loot and then go and clear the location, this game doesn’t penalise you for the choices you make. It fully embraces them. Kill that merchant? They drop a “ball bearing” that you can give to another NPC to access their wares. Kill someone you meet, sure you lock out their questline but you get a dope weapon for it.

Build diversity is a huge part of this game too, one that I plan on taking advantage of and currently I am planning my second playthrough. There are a wide variety of weapons and spells to choose from, each requiring certain stat distributions, meaning the combat in your next run could be entirely different from your last. The enemies themselves do not change but the vast different in playstyles given to the player can make them feel brand new each time.

Weapon skills play a role in the combat of this game and I found myself collecting as many different weapons as I could, not to use them, just to see what their skills were. For example there is a sword that you lift in the air and smash in the ground to summon a wave of fire that heals you! Another is a Great Axe that you smash into the ground and cause the earth to shatter twice.

Now I’ve had my nerd-out about how much I loved the game, I have to now talk about the Elephant sized negatives I found about the game. While these do not take away how much I enjoyed my experience they were aspects I kept thinking needed improvement. Starting with some magics you could acquire throughout the course of the game.

Now, I didn’t dabble too much into magic during my playthrough as beating my enemies with a massive Greatsword seemed more appealing to me at the time. However, I did use some of the draconic spells and found them very underwhelming, which was a disappointment especially considering how you get them. If you couldn’t guess, draconic spells come from defeating dragons throughout the game and collecting their hearts to then unlock the spells.

They had very limited range and a very long wind-up time and with how fast paced the game plays I found them more of a hinderance than a boon. Bare in mind, this could be a skill issue. The animations for them are amazing, you summon the dragon above your head and breath fire in an arc around you as an example. I hope for my later playthrough that not all magic feels like that, but I doubt it does.

Dungeons were a little disappointing. I got very bored of the repetitiveness of them pretty quickly and felt like they could of use much more love. The layouts were all very “samey” and the bosses were reused A LOT. Particularly these statues of Dog/Cat’s that I saw way too often. I know the gameplay of Dark Soul’s 3 and Elden Ring are very different, but I couldn’t help but compare the two.

In Dark Souls every boss was memorable and felt like an obstacle you had to overcome through skill and learning their moves. In Elden Ring the open world bosses felt very re-used and exhausting at times. This does not count for any of the story/unique bosses which were all phenomenal and I can’t wait to experience them again. Especially Malekith, he must suffer as he made me suffer.

I just feel in a game where the open world is so important to how the game feels and plays, the open world bosses and dungeons should of reflected that and each one should of been unique.

Dragons were also incredibly disappointing in Elden Ring, except for two particular lightning dragons which were unbelievable. The arenas, the animations, the bosses themselves all were stunning. However, I remember in Dark Souls dragons being a pain in the ass. In Elden Ring though, I simply stood by their feet and slashed and it was over.

Questing is my main pain point, while no other Souls games had quest logs or a way to keep tabs on what NPCs have tasked you with, they also didn’t have a vast open world with so much to do and keep track of. There are many NPC quests through the game and a lot of them task you with going to various places across the map. Some of them very late into the game, with no way of keeping track of that.

This wouldn’t of been much of an issue for me if it was a simple matter of exploration and completing the quests that way, but you can be completely locked out of finishing some quests if you progress to certain points in the story or complete certain actions. In order to make sure I got the full experience and finish as many questlines as I could, a lot of my playtime involved looking into the wiki.

Finally, the story of Elden Ring may be there for the hardcore fans who delve deep into the lore but as a casual player it felt very disconnected and scrambled. The basic story was there though, become the Elden Lord, but I had a lot of questions and not many answers throughout playing. This aspect doesn’t take away from my enjoyment as I simply played for the gameplay and not for a full-on story experience.

I enjoyed my time in this game, from the bad to the good and I look forward to future playthroughs and I especially look forward to future titles from this developer. I think they will have a permanent slot in my library from now on. Well played From Software, well played.

9 Elden Lords out of 10.

After a very rocky start, Diablo IV is finally finding its feet with season 2. The potential for this to be a game I play almost every day is slowly showing itself and I could not be having a better time.

Since the start of season 2 I have easily put in over 20 hours into one character and I do not plan to stop. The endgame loop has significantly improved and the game overall feels much more rewarding.

With the launch of season 2 a new endgame boss loop has been introduced which allows players to grind different activities to obtain materials to summon bosses, one of them being a new Uber Boss, for powerful loot.

Starting with Varshan you need to do whispers, simple side quests, that will give you one of 4 different materials needed to summon him. This is the easiest of the bosses I believe, but none of the bosses are overly difficult once you are quite far into the game and have a competent build together. I particularly like that this boss was the endgame boss of season 1 meaning player aren’t affected by FOMO in this case.

Second of the bosses in the “chain” is Grigoire who is found in the Hall of the Penitent. In order to summon him you need to obtain an item called “Living Steel” which can be acquired from chests in the Helltide for 300 cinders. This is a very awkward material to farm as you can only farm it when the Helltide is active which is every 75 minutes. On top of that there are only 2 of the chests each Helltide.

During Blizzcon 2023 developers during a live chat did mention that they are looking into this which I am sure many in the community are relieved about.

Once you have defeat Varshan and Grigoire twice you fight the new Uber Boss Duriel ,who many players will recognise from the Campaign, using the materials that dropped. Whilst he is not up there in terms of difficult like Uber Lilith I am sure some players will still find him a challenge.

Now, onto what is probably the best quality of life change in the entire game, XP has been increase by 40% across the board. This increase is massive and very noticeable in the endgame world tier. The grind to level 100 is finally not a slog and allows people to min-max their builds much faster now which is a relief.

All in all, if the developers keep up these fantastic changes and the level of quality seasonal content they have produced this season I can see myself playing this game for the foreseeable future, something that not many games actually can do.

As the title suggests, this year has been phenomenal for gaming, not just in the quantity of the video games but the quality as well. With the year starting off with a great hit in the ‘Dead Space Remake’ to the most recent release at the time of writing in ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’. We gamers have been spoiled immensely.

The question I must ask though is, will it happen again? Will 2024 also deliver a flow of high-quality games or has 2023 been a brief glimpse into what could be? I don’t think the answer is quite as simple as yes or no, unfortunately. I believe that this rare occurrence of so many high-quality games coming out all within a brief period together is nothing but a coincidence.

The job of a game developer is incredibly difficult. Whilst some on Twitter, I’m not calling it ‘X’, can claim to be an “expert” and tell you how easy it is, it really isn’t. It never will be, if anything it’s going to get tougher and tougher as gaming grows.

In 2011 the biggest game release was The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and at the time it was considered a wonder, not because it was a revolution in the genre, but because the sheer amount of content packed into a game that is only 12GB in size. For companies to keep competing games must keep getting bigger. The most recent game that has taken the internet by storm, Baldurs Gate 3, is over 120GB. This is a lot of content for a game, but why is that?

I’ll tell you why! The game has been in development for 7 years. That is a long time for a game to be in development, especially in the current climate of game releases. Other AAA companies will try and produce their games within a few years to be able to ship it and then work on their next project.

A good example of this is the franchise Pokémon, they try and get a new mainline game out within at least 3 years of their last one. This has come at the cost of their reputation with hardcore fans, claiming the games lack quality and care that they expect from the high grossing franchise of all time. Though despite this, their recent instalment sold over 22 million copies. Which is exactly why this horrible cycle keeps repeating itself. It is safe to say that they are valuing quantity of quality, which is exactly why another year like this may not happen for a long time.

Now, what am I trying to say? Am I saying that 2024 is going to be ‘doom and gloom’ for gaming? No. Not in the slightest. I believe there will be some excellent game releases next year, one I am particularly excited for is Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, the highly anticipated sequel to 2020’s Final Fantasy VII remake.

What I am trying to say is that I do not think it is healthy for anyone to set high expectations every year simply because the stars aligned this year. I believe we as gamers should take the highs when they come and embrace them for what they are and the effort that was put into them.

Pokemon Legends: Arceus is the latest instalment in the mainline series of Pokemon games. It completely changes up the formula by introducing semi-open world locations and a much more in-depth and battling and catching system. The game is a huge step forward in the Pokemon franchise and it was sorely needed after 25 years of the same style throughout every instalment. So, let’s begin with the obvious.

Yes, the game looks awful. It’s 2022 and Gamefreak need to up their game in the graphics department, I will simply not sugar coat it, because there is no good reason it should look the way it does. However. It does not look bad all the time, some sections of the game actually look quite pretty especially when considering the art style they were going for. From my perspective they were going for a Woodblock Printing style which is a very typical style of Japanese art especially in books throughout the 1600s to the 1800s and since this game is set in the past is does work quite well.

The game has received a lot of hate for the way it looks and I simply cannot justify calling this a bad game simply because it doesn’t look like other AAA titles such as Horizon: Forbidden West or Cyberpunk. I like gameplay to do a lot of the talking for a game and Legends has done an amazing job at winning me over with it’s incredible gameplay, enough so that I fear I will not be as interested in the next Pokemon game if it does not adopt this style of gameplay. (This is a lie, I will still enjoy any Pokemon game they put out, regardless of gameplay).

Just to clarify, I have not even finished the main story of the game yet and have put nearly 150 hours into since launch, I will go over why this is later but I believe I have played enough to make this review.

A New Beginning

The game begins with a cutscene of the almighty Pokemon, Arceus, talking to you in a deep black void of nothing, he requests you seek out all Pokemon (in the Hisui region) and only then will you be granted an audience with him. You are then dropped on “Prelude beach” and introduced to the most important character in the game, Professor Laventon.

The Professor is trying to create the worlds first Pokedex, as the game is set in a time when people and Pokemon feared one another he informs you that this will be a dangerous and gruelling task. One that risks your own life in certain situations. Pokemon are dangerous creatures and it is up to you to find out all about them, this is where the fun begins.

This is potentially the most intriguing plot of any Pokemon game to date and definitely contributes to why I love this game so much. In any conventional Pokemon game you would choose your starter and be making your way to your first gym by now, however as there are no gyms and very little trainers for that matter you only have the Pokedex. With no “routes” to follow or cities to visit in Hisui the world is a vast open plain for you to explore so let’s talk about that and how Gamefreak did a wonderful job making it feel alive despite what others say.

The Open Road

A question I actually asked someone recently, when you go for a walk in the woods or country side, are you surrounded by animals with every step you take? No, of course not. Animals are shy and timid, so why would Pokemon be any different? Even in the anime Ash and his friends seem to walk for hours and sometimes never see a Pokemon.

There are 5 different maps that complete the Hisui region and each one feels vastly different to one another. Each map section is populated with Pokemon, some are common in each map and others are only specific to that area in a logical and immersive way.

It doesn’t just stop there, each biome has specific Pokemon. For example, Starly and Wurmple are found in forests and tall grass but you won’t find them in open plains as they are shy and wish to hide away from humans and other Pokemon. Shinx however are the opposite and have no issue attacking humans on sight, so they like to be out in the open and stroll freely, which is why you never find them near tall grass only out in the open. The mountains are filled with bird and rock type Pokemon, there are ore deposits that rock type Pokemon will leap out of if disturbed. Burmy, a bug Pokemon, is based off of a cocoon and logically can only be found in trees.

The world feels immersive and genuine, I know where I need to go for specific Pokemon types and it feels so much better than running back and forth throughout the same grass patch hoping to run into the 5% encounter rate Pokemon I am looking for. This actually sets up my next point which is, wild Pokemon fights simply do not feel like chores anymore.

Throughout all other mainline games, when I am trying to get from point A to point B running into wild Pokemon was simply a nightmare and repels were considered your best friend. Now though, I can just ignore them and if I don’t want a specific species I don’t even look at them and can continue on my way! This was a huge improvement and one I hope they decide to keep.

Battling 101

A surprising twist and one that just makes sense from a gameplay perspective is that the wild Pokemon are difficult and some of them are a real challenge to fight if you do not come prepared. Since there are no trainers and wild Pokemon are not mandatory a lot of players must wonder where the actual difficulty and gameplay comes from, so to answer this Gamefreak created an entirely new battle system for this game. One that makes speed oh so more important.

With this change a wild Pokemon battle can become much more a challenge if you do not know your opponent well. If the opposing Pokemon is faster than you, it will move first. This means type match-ups and prior knowledge are important before engaging a battle. Wild Pokemon can also gang up on you and what you thought was a 1v1 can quickly become a 4v1, so they built around this and added the new “style mechanic.”

This battle style is something that is good for this game due to how it plays but not a feature I want continuing into mainline series games in the future as I could see it being easily exploitable and simply cheesy.

It allows you to change the order of attacks in battle by either reducing your damage or increasing it. By selecting the Agile version of an attack it’s power goes down but may give you a second turn to attack soon after, this allows for strategy against boss Pokemon, more on that soon, but also can save you if a battle is looking a little grim. The strong style however, increases the power of your move but may give your opponent an extra turn to attack you, it is a good pay off and some times wild Pokemon can use the styles against you for added threat.

With updated battle mechanics also comes updated status mechanics and Gamefreak have actually blessed us with these changes. They are a much needed improvement and if carried over I can see stalling getting the much needed toning down that it has needed since the early competitive days. I adore the new status changes, some are incredibly simplistic such as sleep being completely removed and replaced with drowsiness. This means your Pokemon is not just sitting there like a practice dummy taking damage till it either wakes up or getting KOd. Instead much like paralysis, you have a small chance to simply not attack that turn.

Ice type Pokemon were buffed significantly with the status changes too, receiving the ability to proc frostbite on an enemy Pokemon instead of freeze. Frostbite is the opposite of burn, where burn would cut the Pokemons Attack in half frostbite cuts Special Attack in half. This is actually a welcomed new mechanic as it allows you to reliably deal with strong Special Attacking Pokemon. Ice type Pokemon also have double speed in the snow now which is also a huge buff, a welcomed one too.

The final and most incredible change is that status effects are no longer permanent and will either run out after a certain number of turns or after the battle ends. Without trainer battles however the new status changes feel sort of lacklustre and half implemented as a wild Pokemon battle simply doesn’t last long enough for these effects to feel significant, but these quality of life improvements will be incredible in future titles. Bring it on.

They Are Alpha, You’re Beta

Throughout the Hisui region there are many spots with larger than average incredibly strong Alpha Pokemon. These are boss Pokemon, capable of using the agile and strong styles whenever they feel like and with higher invested stats than their other wild Pokemon counterparts. Yes, they are catchable, but the most entertaining part is that any wild Pokemon can actually spawn as an Alpha. These juiced up Pokemon are not only stronger in battle but are just as dangerous outside of battle.

While exploring the wilds you may come across one and think you are safe, however they have the ability to roar a significant distance away and stun you. This gives them the opening to then unleash all manner of hell upon you, including actual Pokemon attacks such as Hyperbeam and Rockslide. Whilst normal wild Pokemon can also do this, they don’t do it to the degree that these Alphas do. They are dangerous and need to be approached stealthily or with your strongest Pokemon out front.

Not only are they challenging bosses used for many tasks throughout the Pokedex, they are also catchable and can be considered trophies by some. They are all maxed sized and sometimes it is rewarding to see your favourite Pokemon towering above its non-Alpha counterpart. I definitely believe Dynamaxing from Pokemon Sword and Shield influenced the creation of Alphas quite a bit because as uninspiring as that gimmick was, it was definitely comical.

I actually really like how they have been implemented and used in the game as ways of “blocking” players from certain areas within the game, however I fear if they keep Alpha as a Pokemon staple they need to be balanced correctly and have steep requirements to catch as they could easily be used to trivialize story based content. I for one implemented the rule throughout my own playthrough to not use Alphas as they are incredible strong.

The Original Pokedex

Now for the meat and potatoes of the whole game, the Pokedex. Easily the most in-depth, enjoyable and quite frankly best part of the game. What was normally a chore in any other Pokemon game has been so vastly improved that it could be the best part of every future Pokemon game to come.

Instead of scouring the region looking for every Pokemon in any spot you can, evolving them, boxing them and then never using them ever again you are tasked with catching a multitude of a species of Pokemon and then documenting them. Seeing them evolve multiple times, catching a certain amount of them using stealth or seeing them use a number of attacks. All of these are used to create the perfect Pokedex, a goal actually in the game. Here’s the best part though, it is not mandatory in the slightest.

The only “goal” in the game is to capture one of each Pokemon and then capture Arceus, that is the main goal. However, Gamefreak has allowed the completionist such as myself to spend countless hours in this game completing every Pokedex page to its finest detail. While there is no need to actually “perfect” the Pokedex you are rewarded for doing so and for fans of shiny hunting, lets just say that it is worth it.

While completing these tasks you actually feel like you are documenting these animals and it seriously helps with the immersion of the game, while others could see some of these tasks as a boring waste of time, for players such as myself it is a welcomed challenge and a good way to keep playing the game. It has definitely been created for all the completionists out there but could also be a good way for newer players to the franchise to experience and use a vast variety of Pokemon.

Final thoughts and concerns

I could talk about this game for hours and incredibly small details Gamefreak have put into this game, such as how Pokemon interact with each other and the very simplistic crafting system but I feel like they are not that overly important to talk about in the grand scheme of everything else I mentioned. The crafting is as simple as it could possibly be and the interacting between Pokemon is so in-depth I would need another post just dedicated to that.

Legends: Arceus is easily the best Pokemon game in the 3D era of mainline titles, it changes up enough to keep it fresh but keeps enough to keep it familiar and welcoming. I fear however that if Gamefreak do not keep up this formula of Pokemon games it could cause issues within the wider community and further games may not do well unless they are this style of catching and semi open-world. I believe Gamefreak have created a fantastic starting point for the future of the franchise and they need to capitalise on this hype that has been generating from this game and keep that momentum going. Rather than what I fear they will do and go back to old formula of games in the next generation of Pokemon, which is rumoured to be announced this year.

Whilst I do praise and love this game, it isn’t without it’s problems. The controls for mounts verses walking is so confusing and controls for one are different for others which creates awkward controls and some times an unpleasant experience. As I said earlier, the improvements to battles are awesome and a welcome change but under utilized by the lack of trainer fights and finally, Gamefreak seriously need to work on the load distance in their games. It is incredibly distracting and honestly I feel like a lot of players would cut them some slack over the graphics if they fixed that.

It has officially been a year as of today (November 10th 2021) that Destiny 2: Beyond Light launched. Whilst Beyond Light had its ups and downs, looking at you stasis, this year was a success in terms of content.

Bungie introduced a lot of new changes into the seasonal model when Beyond Light came out, including seasonal challenges, more story elements and a lot more loot to chase. Speaking of story, this years overarching storyline has easily been the best the Destiny universe has ever seen. I actually care about the characters that aren’t Cayde-6, may he rest in peace, which is a shock because normally I wouldn’t care about any of them. Back to the point, as someone who plays Destiny 2 easily 5 days a week, there was a good amount of content to nibble on as time went by. However towards each seasons end the problems were becoming increasingly clearer, there simply isn’t enough content to feed the masses.

A lot of good has come from this year of content though, and it is very obvious to see that Bungie are taking the game seriously and want it to be the best it can be. So lets talk about some of these points starting with seasonal challenges, which have actually been a highlight of the past year.

The new seasonal challenges introduced in Beyond Light were a nice check list of activities each week that kept new and hardcore players like myself coming back. Some of them were of course needlessly tedious and far too grindy, they were still a good addition to the world of Destiny and I actually look forward to doing them each season. They incentivized playing all the core activities and doing the seasonal content too, whether this be the weekly story mission or playing the 6 player activity that came with the season.

However, whilst the challenges brought about a lot of good and reason to play, they also came with negatives. Each seasons vendor upgrades were locked behind a particular weeks challenges and they needed to be completed in order to fully upgrade that vendor for the season. The time-gating Bungie has implemented season after season has become increasingly more tedious and I sincerely hope that Bungie are re-thinking this for next years content when Witch Queen launches.

Since I mentioned the seasonal activity lets talk about it a bit. The means of acquiring loot each season have been above and beyond the previous years seasonal activities, aside from season of the Worthy’s sundial. They have been different in terms of location and visuals, while each having their own unique mechanics and bosses, unfortunately this has not stopped them from becoming repetitive and boring over time. Whilst the current seasons activity, which is set in the dreaming city and is visually stunning, is fun at first, it eventually became a bit of a gruelling slog that I tried to avoid every week unless I needed to do it. This may possibly stem from Bungies need to not give us loot, but more on that later. It had only 2 bosses, one of which was incredibly designed and 3 different sub waves before the boss that were unnecessarily long. There is only so many times I can shoot blue balls of ether out of the air before I question existence.

This has been a pattern with Bungie over the past year, an overly dramatic boss fight that is straight after a very lacklustre horde mode lite, which ruins the fun due to how much time it takes. In my opinion Season of the Splicer had the best seasonal activity but even then it was far too long. 3 waves of banking motes in a pillar with a boss after each wave, this then led to the final boss fight in which the health bar was gated making you literally jump through hoops just to be able to go back and melt the second bar. Which was done in approximately 5 seconds if the people you were playing with had any sort of knowledge on how to play effectively.

They clearly learnt from Season of the Hunt as that seasons activity was basically non existent as you simply killed a boss and got loot, but were unable to gain access to the boss fight unless you had charged a Lure Module from playing playlist activities. Even typing this out its exhausting to think about. This is the main problem I and a lot of other players have with each new season, is that in order to obtain new loot you had to keep playing old content. I would prefer it if I was able to farm the seasonal content for the new loot but wasn’t met with this feeling every time that Bungie do not want us farming the new gear too quickly. This stems into the Destiny 2 loot problem.

The loot problem in this game is something I have been meaning to vent about for quite a while now. Recently Trials of Osiris, a topic I am excited to discuss, had a huge overhaul and has become a game mode worth farming loot for. Allowing you to pick and choose what piece of gear you want was easily the best part of this overhaul. Bungie knows that this is a path to success because Season of Opulence’s Menagerie was so well received and is still spoken about as the best activity Bungie has added.

This overhaul is something that Iron Banner, Strikes, Crucible and Gambit sorely need. (It is rumoured Iron Banner is getting this treatment soon though). A means of acquiring the loot I want without feeling like my time has been wasted. I would love to be able to play strikes and obtain Vanguard Engrams to then choose which strike weapon I would like from Zavala’s inventory screen. It really is simple talking about it in this means but I am not a developer so I just do not know how difficult it is to do something like this. As it stands now I could spend 4 to 5 hours in the strike playlist and not see the weapon I want to drop once because the loot pool is so over crowded. Or spend 2000+ tokens to Lord Saladin and not see a single Shotgun drop, to put that into perspective that is 100 drops.

From where I am standing it seems Bungie are scared to give us tons of loot as it will stop us from playing the game and therefore the player base will drop off quickly making it harder for newer players to matchmake into other activities. This could not be further from the truth. I have almost 3000 hours on Destiny 2 on steam alone, this does not include hours on Battle.net, and I can say without a doubt there are dozens of weapons I do not have the roll I want on. I think it is time that in these core activities, Bungie ups the drop rates of loot and let us play in this amazing sandbox they have designed!

This could actually be a reason as to why Exotic Primaries are used much more than non exotic ones. Ace of Spades is statistically the best gun in the game for PvP and can simply be purchased through a vendor screen, whilst a well rolled Palindrome or Igenous Hammer could take hours of grinding in ways that certain players just simply wouldn’t enjoy. I used these two examples because Palindrome can only be obtained from playing Nightfalls, an endgame PvE activity which requires a high light level and Igenous Hammer can only be obtained from Trials of Osiris a PvP activity.

These two activities have actually been improved upon drastically with the Trials changes and the fact that a Grandmaster completion is guaranteed to drop a weapon now, however in Bungie fashion, they took two steps forward and one step back by having two nightfall weapons a week meaning RNG is even harder to overcome now as you need to get the weapon you want to drop, then the perks in each of the 4 columns you want too. Changes like these solidify my fear that they do not like us having loot and are trying to prolong the grind for every player, which is ironic because they want more players but this deters them away unless they love the grind.

Now this all stems into the main problem Destiny 2 has had over the past year and it is going to continue getting worse and worse until Bungie choose to take action. I am of course, talking about the PvP portion of the game. If you are apart of the Destiny community you will know by now PvP has been a hot topic for a while now. Maybe this could be because of Stasis, maybe it is because we haven’t had a new map in over 700 days, or maybe it is because Bungie didn’t have a PvP team over the past year or so. No, I will tell you what it is, all of the above.

Destiny 2 has a gameplay loop, a simple one, grind PvE for awesome weapons then take them into PvP and ruin some other persons day. This then makes that person question where to get this gun or ability. It makes them want to go out and get it so they can use it, thus the cycle is born. Bungie seem to have forgotten this. It is what made the original Destiny so fun. I still think Destiny 2 is the better game but you can see my point.

When Beyond Light came out, Bungie removed roughly 14 crucible maps from the game, this was a large amount of content. It was a necessary evil because they updated the game to a brand new engine and didn’t have enough time to update those maps before Beyond Lights launch. Whilst players were sceptical I and many other players were under the assumption that they were going to add brand new maps into the crucible throughout the course of 2021, this did not happen. Which is why it has been almost 700 days without a new map and a whole year since we lost 14 of them.

This, however, does not take away my enjoyment of Destiny 2’s PvP as I play it on a daily basis and still enjoy it as trying as it can be some times. I am not ignorant to the problems it has though and I am very open in my opinion about them. Whilst maps are super important and needed to keep the game feeling fresh, it is not where the main problem stems from. It stems from a lack of communication on Bungies part, (something over the course of the year which has been getting better) lack of updates to the sandbox before a new season comes out and finally a lack of obvious testing before launches.

Abilities have become rampant and with Bungie adding new ways each season to get them faster the problem is becoming worse. Bungie have stated multiple times that they want to the PvP to feel like an arcade shooter however, it is becoming a grenade simulator and losing that shooter essence. Guns have become a secondary though to a lot of players, which is super unhealthy for an FPS. Skill is now becoming “easier” to obtain as more and more players are doing better because the guns matter less, it is important for any PvP to have skill levels. This is what keeps people playing, it incentivises skill and awareness growth, which in the long run creates more hardcore and dedicated players.

To summarise, I have a lot of issues with the game as a hardcore player, I want to see this game rise and reach its full potential. I believe Bungie want that too. There needs to be some drastic changes next year to keep the player pool alive, or maybe there won’t be because Bungie know we are all addicted and will come back regardless; I love this game and whilst there has been a lot of downs this year I believe the ups have more than made up for it. The loot has been phenomenal, the story has been excellent and the hype for Destiny’s future has never been higher. Of course I could of stated that at the beginning but that would not have been a very interesting read at all, would it?

The moonlight shone through the large crack above the chamber, beaming down and across the ancient ruins below. The old, crumbling stones were covered in moss along the walkways. A moat of dirty, cold water crashed and churned at the deepest portion of the cavern. On a higher ledge overlooking the ruins, three people stood in the dark. One of them, was Lokil. A malevolent Vampire.

One of the people, an old man, fell to his knees as instructed.

“I’ll never tell you anything Vampire. My oath to Stendarr is stronger than any suffering you can inflict on me!”

The Vigilant pronounced proudly, not once breaking eye contact with his captors. His voice was gravelly though, as if it took extra effort to speak with the confidence he had. Lokil starts laughing at his captured Vigilant.

Lokil kneels down to the old mans eye level.

“Oh, I believe you Vigilant. However, I don’t think you’ve even grasped the slightest possibility of what you have found here.”

He whispers softly. The two stare at each other. The Vigilant couldn’t help but stare at the Vampires fangs in fear of what was about to happen. Lokil smirks and stands. He raises his left hand and clicks his fingers. The Vampire Fledgling pulls out an iron dagger and slits the Vigilant’s throat in the blink of an eye.

“Lord Harkon will reward us royally when we return what he has been searching for after all these long years!” He spoke loudly as if he wished the whole of Tamriel to hear his achievement. He looked across the small stone bridge to the ruins with a proud smile. “We are close now, nothing will stop us.” Upon finishing his sentence a large crash erupts behind him and the platform where the fledgling once stood was now cloaked in a thick layer of dust. His smile soon disappeared and was replaced by a frown of annoyance.

Two more fledglings ran to Lokil’s side from the stone arches within the center of the ruins. They stood behind Lokil as they await the dust to dispurse, to reveal the cause of the interuption. A small pain filled groaning is heard from within the dust and Lokil squints his eyes for better vision. A squelch and the ‘thwang’ of a blade are heard. The groaning stops.

As the dust vanishes a figured clad in Bone Armor is kneeling on the body of the once live fledgling and pulls a magnificent golden sword that glistened like the sun, from the back of its head. The blood ran down the platform and reached Lokil’s boot. He looks at his boot puzzled, when the sudden realization of his Vampire siblings death causes him to fixate on the intruder with a rageful stare. Frightened the other two fledglings hissed like feral cats at their intruder. The figure stood and raised his sword and shield. The Dragonborn had arrived.

The two fledglings hesitate cautiously, yet kept a deep eye contact with their intruder. A few seconds pass and the fledglings turn and look at their master for further instruction. Lokil stares at them aggressively. They both knew what that meant: attack. The one standing to the right lunged first and proclaimed “Never should of come here!” The Dragonborn chuckled and flung his sword straight into the air, they raised their Ebony shield and reflected the white light of the moon into the first fledglings eyes.

Blinded, the fledgling slashed wildly with their claws in the direction of the Dragonborn. Deciding to act upon this opportunity they held their shield outwards, clenched their right hand and with all the force they could muster punched the inner plating of the Ebony shield. The resulting impact of the bone gauntlet clashing with the shield created a powerful shock wave, overpowered by this, the fledgling lost all balance and with a swift kick the Dragonborn sent them plummeting into the chasm below.

Lokils rage was beginning to build. He instructed the other fledgling to attack, immediately the fledgling lunged toward the Dragonborn in an attempt to knock them off balance. Being the skilled warrior they were, the Dragonborn bashed away Vampire a small distance away with their shield. Their previously discarded sword was falling back to the ground as planned. With incredible speed they grabbed the sword and immediately slashed it horizontally. The swords long reach easily killed the Vampire. All Lokil could see was the back of his fellow Vampire as his head simply fell from his neck.

“You next?” The Dragonborn asked Lokil with incredible confidence, pointing their sword at him. Lokil began to breathe faster with rage, his black greasy fringe covering his blood red face. Suddenly a loud humming started resonating from Lokil and he quickly evaporated into a cloud of bats.

“Well, that’s new.” The Dragonborn exclaimed. Unable to track the bats in the darkness of the cavern, the Dragonborn looked around until finally turning a half circle to face the entrance to the room. Lokil had re-materialized in front of them, kicking them straight in chest, he hissed with excitement at dealing what he thought, was a mighty blow.

“You dare come here and interrupt our plans! Who do you think you even are?”

A question he would soon come to regret. The Dragonborn groaned and picked themselves up, smirking the entire time. They stood up and straightened their back. Believing this was a preparation for attack, Lokil pulled a Daedric dagger from waist and spun it so the blade end was pointing away from him. He gripped the hilt tight. In his left hand he begun to cast the Raise Dead spell and the Vigilants’ body begun to glow a fiery blue. The Dragonborn dropped his weapons.

Lokils’ anger and rage turned to that of puzzlement and confusion, nevertheless he persevered and shook off his emotions and got further into his incantation, hoping to even the battle. The Dragonborn took in a deep, deep breath, closed his eyes and uttered the word, “Fus.”

“What did you just say?” Lokil asked aggresively, believing the Dragonborn has insulted him in some way. Louder the Dragonborn spoke, “RO!” Lokils’ face dropped upon realizing what was about to happen. His spell stopped before completion and the body of the departed Vigilant disintegrated into a pile of ash. With blade in hand he ran with all his might to the Dragonborn at an attempt to halt his actions.

The ceiling began to rumble as the ancient magics surrounded the two, and the stones columns supporting the bridge began to crumble. At the top of their voice the Dragonborn let out their mighty Thu’um. “DAH!” The ancient Dragon tongue released a massive concussive blast that hurtled towards Lokil as the sound echo’d throughout the cavern, reaching every nook and cranny. The Master Vampire stopped running as he saw the very stone ground in front of him begin to tear and shatter. The blast took him and threw him at the cobblestone wall behind him. The massive bricks of stone collapsing on top of his body were irrelevant as he was already dead from the impact of the blast.

Picking up their Sword and Shield from the ground, the Dragonborn turned around and begun to examine the Stone Monolith at the center of the ruins.

“What an odd structure, why would a group of Vampires go through so much to protect this?” They asked themselves.

They stepped closer to the Monolith and looked at the ancient inscriptions that encompassed it. On the backside of the Monolith there was a diagram of a small pillar surrounded by four lit braziers. Leaning to the side, their vision focused and fixated on a small pillar off to one side of the ruin and the four braziers became visible too, yet they weren’t in their aligned place. The Dragonborn walked over to the pillar realizing that whatever threat may present itself, it was no match for them, so what harm could eliminating the threat do. Atop the pillar was a partially covered hole, the inside glowed with a red hue, it was faint but visible when in the dark. The Dragonborn knelt down and examined an inscription written down the side of the small pillar. It read the words “blood” and “sacrifice” over and over. It seemed almost too simple.

Plunging their Sword into the ground in an upright position, the Dragonborn took off their helm and placed it on the hilt of the Sword. They sat and contemplated. The curiosity was over whelming for them, yet their restraint and resolve told them not too do anything and to simply report this back to Isran, and yet. The curiosity.

They stood straight up and took off their right hand gauntlet, throwing it to the ground. Tentatively, the Dragonborn lowered their right hand above the opening. In a flash, a mighty blade shot straight up from deep within the pillar. The Dragonborn screamed in anguish. Their blood drained downwards and a purple flame began to rise from a crevice that followed along the floor to a Brazier. It suddenly clicked inside their head, noticing that the crevice allowed for the Braziers to be moved.

Ignoring the pain of their impaled hand, the Dragonborn moved each one into a new position, moving each Brazier as far they could be moved. As each one clicked into place they all became lit with the purple flame that originated from the sacrificial pillar. Suddenly, the central monolith began to rumble. The entire ruin began to shake and the bridge connecting the floating platform to the entrance the Dragonborn once used, collapsed. They ran to a stone archway for cover. When all of a sudden, the shaking stopped.

One face of the Monolith began to move and the clattering of stone against stone was almost deafening. The Dragonborn crept forward and prepared for a fight. As the face of the Monolith began to lower more and more what came out, was in fact not a monster, but a woman.

Falling out of the Monolith semi-conscious, the Dragonborn slid to the ground and caught her in their arms. Looking at this woman, their face was puzzled and confused, in complete disbelief that the Vampires were after a person trapped inside a stone Monolith. They began to question, how long was she in there? Why? What did the Vampires want with her? He looked down at the stranger. On her back a metal capsule in the shape of scroll was strapped to her, it was gold and white and glistened in the moonlight. The capsule was almost as long as her and it seemed heavy and sturdy. Whatever was in there was of great importance.

Curious, the Dragonborn let out their hand and gently brushed the capsule cleaning away the dust. Without warning the woman’s eyes shot open and she pounced away from their savior. No weapon drawn, no fist raised, simply clutching the bottom of the capsule for dear life.

“Who are you?” She questioned. “What do you want?”

Her voice was soft yet stern. She was demanding in the way she spoke and she knew it. The Dragonborn looked up at her, finally noticing her and not the capsule. Her face was gentle, her lips were a icy blue and her hair was a deep devouring black, this still did not answer the question as to who she was though.

“My apologies, I did not mean to startle you. I was simply curious. Allow me to introduce myself.” They re-equipped their right gauntlet and reached out their hand for a greeting. “My name is…” They stopped. After examining the woman and the capsule they finally noticed something important, her eyes. Her eyes were a bright orange, as if the sun was burning through her and in turn burning through them. They retracted their hand.

“You’re a Vampire.” He said cautiously.

“So?” She responded almost immediately. She was obviously used to this observation. “What of it? You are in a large suit of Bone armor and your sword hurts my skin to look at.”

She was referring to the Dragonborns sword, Dawnbreaker, a weapon commonly used to kill Vampires. As it had slayed her kin a mere ten minutes ago.

“It is still covered in blood and and you keep glancing at it as if your life depends on it, who in this situation, is more of a threat?” She said proudly but with a slight nervousness to her voice, as she was still weary of her rescuer.

The Dragonborn sensing that she is frightened and still a little dazed, or confused, slowly backs away from her but not in the direction of their sword. They stop and think, closely examining the situation and deciding the best course of action.

“My apologies. When a Vampire is this close it tends to be coupled by a screaming and then an attempt on my life. So please forgive my suddenness.“

The woman no longer reserves herself and lets down her guard. She releases her grip from her capsule.

“I understand, not all mortals are comfortable with my kind. I can assure you, I mean you no harm. Now, might I ask what it is you are doing here and why it is you who has woken me?“

The Dragonborn looks confused. “Where you expecting someone else?”

She averts her gaze from them.

Continuing themselves the Dragonborn explains. “I was sent here by a man named Isran, from the Dawnguard. Vampire Hunters.“

The womans breathing hastens.

“I was sent here because apparently the Vampires were after a long lost artifact of some kind. It was my job to put a stop to it. I didn’t expect another Vampire to be what I was searching for.“

She paces back and forth, wondering what to say or even if she should trust her savior with the reasoning as to her imprisonment. She stops and looks at the Dragonborn puzzled.

“Are you going to kill me?”

The Dragonborn shakes their head. “I do have some questions.“

“And I will answer them!” She interrupts. “But only if you take me home, to Castle Volkihar, on the northern shore of Solitude.”

“Very well then.” The Dragonborn exclaims excitedly.

They hurry back over to their sword and helm, the woman hurries along behind them. Turning around, the Dragonborn jumps at how close the woman has approached them. She extends a friendly hand to them.

“I am Serana.” She says softly.

The Dragonborn extends their hand and takes hers, shaking it firmly.

“And I’m..” Before finishing their sentence the Dragonborn is interrupted by a hellish scream and a crash of stone against the floor. To the other side of the cavern, up a flight of stairs leading to what looked like Ancient Nordic ruins, a large stone Gargoyle had reanimated and began charging towards the two. Quickly letting go of her hand, the Dragonborn re-equipped their helm and pulled their mighty sword from the ruins floor. Serana looked confused, puzzled as to why the Dragonborn was smiling at the situation they now find themselves in.

“Sorry.” They said proudly. “That’s my cue.”

(Thank you for reading this. For anyone reading this that knows this scene from the game you will noticed I changed a lot of it to make it more dramatic and make it fit more in book format rather than a video game. I realize there will be mistakes, but this is my first step into doing more writing creatively rather than giving my opinions all the time. I will do more of these if this one is well received.)

When the seasonal pass was announced for Pokemon Sword & Shield a lot of players were very optimistic, this was of course the first time Pokemon had ever received DLC this was obviously thanks to the series now being on Home Consoles, so you could imagine why.

It was quite a shock to some players, not me however, when Isle of Armor was released and the content wasn’t exactly as meaty as some would of liked. The story was very shallow and the end game activity was a battle system in which you could only use one type and keep battling for as long as you can. The first DLC did include a few new Pokémon, a lot of returning ones and a few quality of life updates, but Crown Tundra is where you really get bang for your buck.

The DLC is packed with lots to do depending on what you as a player are interested in. This included things such as a new Endgame activity in which you can go into a “raid adventure” to reach the end Pokémon which is one of the many returning legendaries. It is a fantastic mini game to keep you playing for a lot of hours that you wouldn’t of spent in Isle of Armor! It has some faults which I will discuss later but I feel like speaking positively first rather than negatively.

These “raid adventures” allow the player to hunt any legendary of their choosing (once they had encountered it once), or go in blind and get one of the 38 possible legendaries available. This isn’t all it is good for either, along the way you capture three more Pokémon all with predetermined move-sets for the purpose of the activity and if the legendary isn’t what you are looking for you can keep one of these instead! It is fantastic for filling up the Pokedex or just capture good Pokémon for competitive use, if you are into that sort of thing.

It is also a new method for shiny hunting, my personal endgame goals, as the odds are 1/300 for a shiny without the shiny charm, or 1/100 with the shiny charm. For anyone wondering why this is significant the normal odds for encountering one of these oddly coloured wonders if actually 1/4000 without the shiny charm, or 1/1365 with the shiny charm. This is a huge increase, as it should be because the activity is quite lengthy and can last up to half an hour. So they needed to make these rewarding.

Speaking of rewards, not only are the Pokemon quite the spicy treat, as you play, online or offline, you gain a new type of in-game currency which allows you to purchase special items that help for breeding and raising competitive teams. Including an item that allows Pokemon to obtain their hidden ability without them actually having it in the first place, this is subject to the Pokemons species of course as some don’t have a hidden ability. This is a part of Gamefreaks huge overhaul in these games to help newer players get into competitive quicker. This has been widely accepted and appreciated by the community.

So, you may be asking yourself by now, but Harry what is actually new in this DLC? Well this has actually been something I have adored as a Pokemon fan and am excited to talk about! This DLC included a plethora of new legendaries for trainers to capture and raise. It even gave new and old players access to Pokemon that have never been available inside of a main series Pokemon game before.

When you arrive in the area of the new DLC you are introduced to Peony, the main character of the DLC and your guide to all things legendary. He tasks you with going around the Crown Tundra and finding out the mysteries surrounding the legendaries and why they are here in the Crown Tundra.

The quests are all small hints written on pieces of paper in the players inventory and you must solve the clues and find the legends. Firstly you must uncover the truth behind the King of Bountiful Harvests, the people of the Crown Tundra have been without bountiful harvests for quite some time and the King of legends has become just that, a legend. The player, obviously as they are the main character, is contacted by this legendary being and ask to help bring back the harvest to the people by restoring his power. It is quite a short quest, like all them are, in which the player gets to choose which type of Pokemon you wish the legendary Calyrex ends up being. Giving the player choice has always been a good thing in this game series as it doesn’t force players into choosing a Pokemon that wouldn’t want to use on their team.

The second quest objective is to undercover the secret behind mysterious ruins, locked behind walls of braille and the player must uncover what the secret messages mean. This particular quest is a call back to the legendary side quest in the 3rd generation of Pokémon from just over 12 years ago. The first 3 ruins will give you the 3rd gen legendary titan trio that players are all very familiar with. This quest came with….a twist. Once the player has capture the original 3 titans the player is tasked with going to a 4th ruin in which 2 new titans have been added into the game series! Originally the titans were a trio with their “overlord” titan being separate and stronger than them all. This was an incredible surprise when announced by Gamefreak because none of the 4 generations after generation 3 had they added new titans, and they are incredible designs and expand upon the existing lore in the Pokémon Universe.

This quest comes with a catch, not a pun I swear, in which the player can only choose one of the new titans and that is it. This is obviously to encourage trading and online interactions amongst players as Pokémon has always had version exclusives and it obviously wasn’t going to stop now. Whilst slightly annoying and inconvenient, as players are obviously going to want to use both of the new Pokemon, it was something I saw coming and therefore went in with that expectation.

LASTLY AND MOST EXCITEDLY. The final quest involves the player going to a majestic pink tree with large red fruits growing around it. Upon inspection of the tree a cutscene begins as 3 majestic birds begin their dramatic fight. One bird with black fire engulfing its body, one that resembles an Ostrich with jagged wings and finally a purple bird which eyes light up and shoots laser beams out of. But…wait. Upon closer inspection these birds look somewhat familiar.

That is right, these are no ordinary birds, these are new galarian forms of the original three legendaries from Generation 1 of Pokémon, Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. These are without a doubt the best part of the DLC and could of been the only thing added and I would of purchased it. They are some of my favourite creatures designs in recent years and honestly, with all the new forms of Pokemon being added in recent generations it was about damn time some legendaries got this treatment.

Once encountered, the birds disappear and roam amongst different areas in the game and it becomes a chase as they are incredibly fast and must be caught up to before the battle begins. They are all difficult to capture and come with new moves and typings. All whilst retaining some of the original design’s spark. I wish I could of shiny hunted them…. which of course, brings us to the negatives.

Since Generation 5 of Pokémon, Gamefreak have had an affinity to “Shiny Lock” certain species of Pokémon, particularly legendaries. This has not changed and it angers players greatly. For me and many others, Shiny hunting is a huge part of Pokémon’s replayability. Thankfully the new raid adventures can be shiny hunted but of course I wanted to shiny hunt the new legends and birds! However, I’m not allowed, to which I ask, why? What does this achieve. This has obviously been done so Gamefreak can host online events to distribute these shiny Pokémon but to me that seems disrespectful to a huge portion of the community.

This of course isn’t the end of the world but something puzzles me, the birds cannot be shiny hunted, the new legendary Calyrex cannot be hunted, nor the secret Pokémon but, the new legendary titans can be hunted? This seems odd. Especially since their shiny forms are not as well designed as the others which are locked. This is not the end of this though, the DLC introduced the Mythical Pokemon Keldeo! A species never catchable in a main series game and it’s shiny locked! Its madness.

For my final nitpick and this is a nitpick, the raid adventures are a perfect example of how a online and open world Pokémon would be incredible, but the connection issues are atrocious and need to be seriously worked upon. It is off putting and really ruins these raids as you can never tell if someone is simply not taking their turn to attack or have been disconnected, which the game doesn’t even tell you by the way.

All in all, this particular DLC made the season pass worthy of the purchase, it was incredibly worth the wait and I have already put plenty of hours into it. I am actually playing the raids as I write this! With the 25th anniversary of Pokemon on the horizon and the new main series games releasing next year, I am super excited for the future of Pokemon. Just please Gamefreak, give me a difficulty slider, no one else. Just me.

Over a week ago I begun the long grind that is streaming. It has been an insightful and interesting experience for not only me as a person but it has allowed me to see how games can be enjoyed from a viewers perspective as the streamer. Which up until over a week ago, I had never experienced.

Streaming required a lot of courage on my part as I am really putting myself out there to complete strangers and for long periods I am just talking to myself about the video game I am playing. However, it is incredibly satisfying and encouraging to see a random and complete strangers choose your particular channel as their choice of content creation they wish to watch that day. I have mainly been streaming games I would play on a daily basis as they come naturally to me when playing them, this allows me to actually explain and discuss my vast knowledge on these games while creating an intelligent and hopefully entertaining experience.

There is a lot of technical knowledge that is required to have an interesting and engaging stream, this includes the creation of on screen notifications that allows the viewer to see their own name on screen which helps them feel appreciated and wanted in the community they have chosen to be a part of. There are also a vast variety of ways to capture gameplay and footage each one requiring separate sources to be configured correctly. As a newcomer to this journey I have embarked on, there is also a lot of things I have to learn on the technical and social side of streaming, things such as what is the best bitrate to stream at with my current download and upload speeds and a whole lot of other technical settings I haven’t even begun to look at….

Recently I have implemented a webcam into my streams, which if anyone knows me, is no easy feat for me. I have incredible self-esteem issues and have huge problems with how I look, sound and my various skills in video games. This new addition has really put me out there but it feels great and I wish to continue this and I hope to evolve my stream in other various ways as time progress. I am not idiotic to think that I am going to become “famous” or “successful” but any progress in my eyes is a step into the industry I wish to work in. Am I hopeful that my stream goes somewhere and takes off? Of course I am! I will continue to grind the long grind every day hoping to eventually create the small and close community I have always wanted for myself.

So far this experience has been very good for my confidence, as it brings me joy to know I can keep people entertained playing video games that I enjoy so much, especially since I am incredibly passionate about this industry and cannot wait to see what it holds in the future.

Of course, it wouldn’t be an article about my own experiences in streaming without a shameful plug of my stream:

https://www.twitch.tv/halwho

Thank you to anyone who continues to read my blog, as I appreciate you very, very much.

Harry.

There are many wonders and mysteries in the world of Pokemon, but none as interesting as Gamefreaks choice to do a series of Pokemon DLCs rather than the creation of a sister or sequel game. This is not a criticism on my part, as I for one prefer this option to playing through what is essentially the same game again for a few more hours of content. Which, to some, can be tedious and irritating.

One of the main charms of the Pokemon Franchise is it’s cutesy and adorable creatures and their distinct personalities. Isle Of Armor manages to once again continue this trend of adorable scenes between trainer and Pokemon, whilst managing to bring a new level of enjoyment and immersion to Pokemon that return, which fans were already in love with. Simple things from Emolga jumping from tree to tree, or a puppy-like Rockruff running towards you waggling it’s tail.

Perhaps one of the DLC’s main selling points, is the ability to access the new area and content at any point during the main story’s development. This allows for players to experience the main game in new and different ways by using Pokemon which were unable to be obtained in the wild pre-DLC. This may be confusing for some as surely the DLC is meant to be post game content and as such all trainers and wild Pokemon would be considerably higher level than the player. This is not the case. Gamefreak have created a dynamic level scaling system in which the wild Pokemon and the AI controlled Pokemon scale to highest level of the players party. There is a catch though, they only scale up to level 60, I believe this was implemented because multitudes of wild level 100 Pokemon could become overwhelming for inexperienced players.

The story is short and sweet, however as a well invested player into this game, I had lots of Pokemon to choose from which trivialized the content, this however did not take away from its charm. I look forward to playing through the game again with the DLC installed and experiencing the new content from a newer players perspective. The new areas, whilst similar to the main games open world sections, are still just as breathtaking and expansive for what is obviously less player space. The areas throughout the Isle Of Armor are filled with lots of different variations of Pokemon separate from the main game, whilst still having the odd familiar face thrown in.

Some wild Pokemon in this area have been specifically animated to suit their new environment, as mentioned earlier Emolga can be seen jumping from branch to branch, whilst Pokemon like Sharpedo can be seen racing at you through the water with seemingly no escape. I believe it would be a disservice to the incredible creature designs to not correctly fit them into their environment with the appropriate personalities. Speaking of personalities, the main “rival” is the same bland and boring concept as most Pokemon games, which makes their scenes and battles feel pointless and time consuming from the main draw from the DLC which is of course, catching Pokemon and exploring the new zones.

The DLC suffers from a lack of new Pokemon as there are a total of 3. 4 including the event Pokemon Zarude which is not yet in the game and must be obtained through an event. However, the DLC introduced a free patch to the vanilla game that allows players to transfer Pokemon which were reintroduced in the DLC from older titles such as Sun and Moon. This can be done without the need to purchase the DLC! Long time Pokemon fans which were heartbroken to see some of their favourites not make it into Sword and Shield can now rest easy as over 100 Pokemon have been reintroduced into the Sword and Shield ecosystem, this should surely spice up the competitive scene quite a bit.

The overall experience was nothing new from the current iterations of Pokemon, as the battles were simple and easy as I expected from a Pokemon game. Pokemon is designed with children in mind which is why I went in with the expectation that it was going to be easy as to not disappoint myself, I would say with great certainty that it did not exceed my expectations however. Difficulty in Pokemon stems from a greater problem that isn’t something I wished to discuss on this post as I wanted the focus to be on the DLC itself.

The main take from my time in this DLC is that Gamefreak are on their way to a successful system in keeping their Pokemon games relevant till the next iteration, for the price of £13 per DLC it certainly feels worth the investment and I hope to see them improve upon these in the future with later installments in the series.

Harry.