Grave Gamer News & Views — fps

Meet the Team! Er, Blizzard’s Overwatch Team, That Is

Blizzard, for the first time in thirty-seven years, has announced a brand new IP today. Overwatch is a vibrant 6v6 first-person shooter that walks, admittedly, a very Team Fortress-y line.

It’s got itself an artistic bent that calls Pixar’s style to mind and incorporates unique personalities with class specific traits like healing, flying, and...

Destiny’s ‘The Dark Below’ Dated and Detailed, Drops December

I know what you’re thinking, Guardians. “Why in the world would I need even more content to contend with when I’m perfectly happy to play the same handful of Strike missions over again for the three-hundredth time?”

Listen, I’m with you. It’s a valid point. Originally, I was a little miffed at being locked into the same cutscenes where Dinklebot reads out exposition like he would names in a phone book sixty times over. But after sixty-one times, I loved it.

Come December 9th, though, it’ll be time to influx a brand new set of missions you’ll play into the ground, sanding your joystick nubs into… nubbier nubs. Destiny’s first expansion, “The Dark Below,” launches across all platforms, the standalone DLC pricing in at $19.99 or $34.99 when bundled in the Season Pass (which includes the upcoming “House of Wolves”).

“The Dark Below,” a supposedly substantial expansion to the Destiny universe, includes:

• Three new story missions doled out by a new character, Eris, who apparently spent her time hiding among the Hive like a sci-fi Dian Fossey
• New weapons, armor, and five additional bounty slots (that’s twice the grind!)
• Light Level cap raises to 32; irrelevant, I will forever be stuck at 26
• A new Strike, “The Will of Crota,” where you face down the Omnigul’s plans for Moon domination
• Another six player Raid called “Crota’s End” in which your Fireteam has to venture into the Hellmouth to prevent Sunnydale High from being overrun with uber-vamps (wait… no, that’s correct)
• Three new PvP maps — The Cauldron, a close-quarters Hive arena; Pantheon, a bout inside a Vex temple; and Skyshock, an abandoned defense array now home to your pulse rifle murder streaks

Additionally, if you count yourself apart of the PlayStation family, you’re privy to an exclusive Strike mission dubbed “The Undying Mind” which I sincerely hope pits players against a giant Dinklebot.

Rumble at the Loot Cave

Chaos broke out at the Loot Cave last night.

Having maxed out my weekly allotment of Vanguard and Crucible Marks, instead of pouring five billion hours into upping my faction standing (roving christ, what am I saying? This game is infecting me), I decided to hop on over to Old Russia’s now infamous exploit spot.

With only one other stranger by my side, things were nominal for fifteen minutes or so. Nominal, as in completely boring but still better than relinquishing myself to the bitter roulette wheel of Destiny’s loot drops elsewhere in the game.

Then, I get a warning that my “enemies are moving in on each other.” That’s when dozens of Fallen and Hive start swarming the area from fucking nowhere. We’re talking all types; warlocks, Knights, and everything in between. It’s a full-on brawl. Blowing through one wave gave way to a new flood of harder enemies. Shielded enemies. Vicious enemies. Not a single one was above a level 11 but their sheer numbers had me sweating, a level 25, sweating and dancing around, trying to fend for life.

The literal stream of enemies is no doubt a coy response from Bungie to smoke players out of using the Loot Cave. But you know what? It was pretty goddamn awesome. It was the first genuine surprise this game has dropped on my lap since I’ve taken on the heavy burden of leveling past 20.

This game needs more moments like this. Sporadic moments. Moments not predetermined by spawn points. Genuinely organic moments. Truly fun, unadulterated pieces of gameplay like this shouldn’t be as rare as a legendary item. It should be the backbone of this game. Why players should want to return. Not for some measly fucking piece of armor that one player can randomly get in one hour where another slogging through one-hundred cannot.

I want to see this game evolve like a true MMO. The Destiny we have now should not be the Destiny we venture to in six months time. Heed the call, Bungie.

Mr. Torgue and Sir Hammerlock Breakdown Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for Ya!

Moral ambiguity, butt slams, and Ghost Dad references. Somehow, these are all subjects touched upon in this extensive rundown on what’s new on Pandora’s moon.

It looks like a measly rock ball from the planet’s surface, but Elpis (i.e. “The Moon”) is teaming with life to be shot at. And don’t worry; Elpis is a equal...

Mega Bloks is Releasing a Tiny Goddamn Nuketown!

It’s a tiny goddamn Nuketown! The infamous map originally debuted in 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops (aka The Last Pretty Decent One aka THE NUMBERS, MASON).

I don’t think Treyarch knew the sort of fire they’d be sparking when first coding the greatest small map since CoD4’s “Shipment,” but Nuketown’s popularity was such that the studio had to alter Black Ops’ multiplayer map voting process because people would play an endless fucking loop of Nuketown and ignore every other map on disc. It was a magical launch. You’d either get a kill in 0.005 seconds from spawning or be killed in the same span of time. Magical.

Responding to our chagrin, Treyarch would periodically open up a “Nuketown 24/7” playlist to sate our masochistic need for instantaneous kills. Now, Mega Bloks wants to squeeze Nuketown into your home 24/7; forever.

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