Download Battlefield V For PS4

Download Battlefield V For PS4

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Enter mankind's greatest conflict with Battlefield™ V as the series goes back to its roots in a never-before-seen portrayal of World War 2. Take on all-out multiplayer across the world or witness human drama set against global combat in single player War Stories.

Release Date: Out NowGenre: Shooter

Developer: DICEPublisher: Electronic Arts

DOWNLOAD - Region USA PSN - Battlefield V FOR PS4 | SIZE: 33.4GB

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–  GAME ID: CUSA08724

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Game Design Activity Sessions – Part 1: Remodelling A Space War On A Blank Paper Sheet

When I was a child, there was a game we used to play during the free time in between classes. It doesn't have an official name, but my friends and I always called it "Space War". Basically, the game's main idea is:

1) in a regular blank paper trace a dividing line right in the middle of it;

2) Each player (and it's a two player game) draws 3 to 6 spaceships (represented by triangles) randomly on their side;

3) the oldest player starts: they must draw a small circle on their side, this is called a "shot";

4) on the next step, this player must fold the paper sheet;

5) after folding the paper the player must guess the place their opponent drew the "shot" and draw another small circle pressing the pen firmly on the area;

6) finally, the player must unfold the paper to check if the "shot" hit the target (the spaceship/triangle); then, it's the other player's turn to play. Important rule: one "shot" only hits a spaceship if it is completely inside the triangle area.

The diagram below shows, in images, the basic rules and game dynamics:



Ok! After trying this game and understanding it, your mission in this exercise is: trying to modify the basic gaming mechanics by adding power cards and dice, giving the ships new abilities and trying to create more uncertainty in a match. Think big and modify the space game with creativity (and try to think of a less stupid name for it).

You can share the results with me by mail, if you want >> vincevader@gmail.com

#GoGamers

Buds, Blooms, And Thorns Review Of Dawn: Rise Of The Occulites By Eagle-Gryphon Games

Buds, Blooms, and Thorns Review of Dawn: Rise of the Occulites by Eagle-Gryphon Games
DisclaimerSupport me on Patreon!

Vitals:
Title: Dawn: Rise of the Occulites (with three tribe expansions - Floris, Ignis, Nimbus)
Designed by: Ben Boersma
Publisher: Eagle-Gryphon Games
Year Published: 2014
MSRP: $275 painted, $175 unpainted
2-4p | 60 min | 10+

Introduction:

Deep in the Australian Outback a tiny new species has been discovered by a young boy named Darwin.  These Occulites aren't of Earth, and they're very primitive.  However, Darwin discovers that they are intelligent and have begun to form tribes.  Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is the first in a series of games that follows these minute creatures as they develop a civilization, from the beginnings of the earliest tribes to their technological future.  As of this writing, this is the only published game from the series.  A second title was on Kickstarter in 2018 but was unsuccessful in its funding attempt.

Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is a 2-4 player skirmish game that comes with a bunch of different scenarios.  Most of the scenarios are for two players, but a handful are for more.  The stories in each scenario range from competitive combat, to area control, and even to cooperative adventures.  Each scenario ranges in length, with most being about 60 minutes.  The first scenario is a multiplayer tutorial that teaches the core mechanics, but leaves out a ton of features.  As you learn more about the game you can progress through the scenarios, adding complexity.

Blooms:
Blooms are the game's highlights and features.  Elements that are exceptional.

• Incredible components!
• Innovative use of cards for multiple different uses.  
• Probably the best dice based combat system I've ever played.

Buds:
Buds are interesting parts of the game I would like to explore more. 

• A wealth of scenarios can be played individually or as part of a campaign.  When played as part of a campaign, your tribe improves in its stats over the course of multiple games.
• The initial scenarios are just the basic mechanics, but as you play more a ton of features get added, resulting in a very deep, strategically complex skirmish game.
• The backstory is very deep and the scenarios reveal more of this rich, imaginative world as you play more.  

Thorns:
Thorns are a game's shortcomings and any issues I feel are noteworthy.

• Very high price tag.
• Very unique theme paired with the combat genre results in a very niche audience.
• The tutorial scenario is too long and doesn't introduce the game in as positive a manner as it should.

Final Thoughts:

Wow, this is a gorgeous game.  The cards, tiles, board, tokens, and all the other bits are phenomenal.  The game board is gigantic!  The artwork is fun and interesting, though a bit bizarre and very stylized.  Some may like it, others may hate it.  Even the storage is incredible, as I've found that all Eagle-Gryphon games have.  However, the miniatures are the most amazing component.  Whether you get the pre-painted minis or unpainted, the detail is incredible, and I guarantee you won't find another miniatures game with characters quite like the Occulites and Luftles.

I really like almost everything about the game.  The depth to the more complex scenarios is something to look forward to and helps repeated plays remain interesting for a very long time.  I love the multi-use cards.  Each card represents a selection of possible uses, including activating figures, determining attack dice, defense dice, special abilities, and even combat boosts.  Cards are used for one of these features, making you really choose which card to play and when.

The innovative dice combat system is a fresh way to use dice in combat without feeling at the complete whim of the dice.  I think out of all dice based combat systems I've played, this is my favorite.  Playing cards determines the number of dice you roll for attacking or defending.  Then each faction's attack or defense strength determines what values on the dice count as a hit or block.  Once the dice are rolled, then a combat chart determines which side loses health.  So if I'm attacking, and my card has an attack value of 5, that means I roll 5 dice.  If my tribe's attack strength is 4 that means every die that is a 4 or less is a hit.  The defense will do the same thing, but using their card's defense value to determine the number of dice to roll and their tribe's defense strength to derminccessful blocks.  So let's say I play a card with an attack value of 5, plus a boost card of 2.  That means I'll roll 7 dice.  4 of those have a value of 4 or less.  The defender plays a defense card of 4, but has a defense strength of 5.  Of the 4 dice rolled, 3 have a value of 5 or less.  That means there was one successful hit.  Consulting the combat resolution chart, that means the defender would lose one health.  Had I rolled 6 hits or the defender had only rolled 2 blocks then the defender would have lost 2 health because my number of hits would have been double the number of blocks.  It sounds complex, but once you've played it a bit it makes sense and adds a lot of depth to the decisions and strategy without feeling like you're a slave to dice results.

This game is very, very close to a Bloom game, however I think there are a few things that hold it back.  

The price tag is going to be a huge turn off for most people.  There are a lot of miniatures games, combat games, and other similar games available at a fraction of the cost.  This game is great for what it is, but I'm not sure if the price is justified for anyone but the most serious gamers interested in this type of game.  That said, I'm not sure there are a whole lot of people that are interested in this type of game.  While the theme, mechanics, and experience all blend together very well, I think the theme is probably a mismatch for the game's intended audience.  I think most people interested in this type of combat, skirmish, campaign game are either looking for military or Tolkienesque fantasy themes.  The Occulites are interesting, but probably for a more niche audience.

I also wasn't happy with the tutorial scenario.  It's a big hill to climb.  Not so much because of any complexity; the tutorial does a great job of just introducing the core mechanics and other scenarios gradually add more complexity.  However, the tutorial scenario ends up being a very long game.  I played the initial scenario twice with different people and both times it took well over 2 hours.  Part of that was for learning, but that should be expected in a tutorial scenario.  I'd expect the initial scenario to be much faster than the other scenarios, not more than twice as long.  Because of this, I've had a hard time getting this back to the table.  I'm not interested in investing another 2-3 hours playing the tutorial again and those that I did play it with aren't interested in playing again because the tutorial overstayed its welcome.

Overall, Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is an amazingly ambitious game project.  It's apparent in everything about the project that it's a labor of love from designer Ben Boersma and his partners at Eagle-Gryphon Games.  Unfortunately the great mechanics, deep lore, and immersive scenarios are held back by a very small target audience and high price tag.  I think if this were re-released and rethemed as generic military or standard fantasy it would be blowing up the Kickstarter hype train.  A more streamlined tutorial that can be played in 30-45 minutes is a necessity, too.  For now though, Dawn: Rise of the Occulites is an underrated gem.  If any of this has piqued your interest, and the price doesn't scare you off, you won't be disappointed in the game.  It won't be leaving my collection, even though I can't get it to the table as often as I'd like.

Buds, Blooms, and Thorns Rating:

Bud!  This game definitely has some
great moments.  It's good for several plays
and should appeal to most gamers, especially
if you enjoy other games like this.

Pictures:

Did you like this review?  Show your support: Support me on Patreon!Also, click the heart at Board Game Links , like GJJ Games on Facebook , or follow on Twitter .  And be sure to check out my games on  Tabletop Generation.

GJJ Games Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with my family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some were provided by a publisher or designer for my honest feedback and evaluation.  I make every attempt to be both honest and constructively critical in my reviews, and they are all my opinions.  There are four types of reviews on GJJ Games: Full Reviews feature critical reviews based on a rubric and games receive a rating from 0 to 100.  Quick Reviews and Kickstarter Previews are either shorter reviews of published games or detailed preview reviews of crowdfunding games that will receive a rating from 0 to 10 based on my impressions of the game.  Buds, Blooms,and Thorns reviews are shorter reviews of either published or upcoming games that highlight three aspects of a game: Buds are parts of a game I look forward to exploring more, Blooms are outstanding features of a game, and Thorns are shortcomings of a game.  Each BBT review game will receive an overall rating of Thorn, Bud, or Bloom.

Why Self-Compassion?

I've read so many self-help books, and upon reviewing the most helpful ones, I keep saying, "that's another way of saying to have self-compassion". The concept that ties all the ideas in these self-help books boils down to self-compassion.

I also recommend The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for a roadmap on how to organize your life in a practical manner, as a very effective and powerful way of doing your to-do lists, and so forth. I summarized the book here in two parts, this is the first part.

But it's really self-compassion that can motivate you to be effective in the first place, and to really stick to your goals! I wasn't able to follow any sort of positive habits for long when I read The 7 Habits in college, because of being easily demoralized.

Therefore, in this post, we'll explain why self-compassion is such a powerful concept. Practicing self-compassion is personal and isn't applied in a "cookie-cutter" way. In fact, having self-compassion is extremely challenging and difficult, as you have to find out what works for you.

In this past post, I superficially touched upon a self-compassion exercise, so in this post, we'll explain why self-compassion is key, by summarizing Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself  by Kristen Neff, Ph.D., who is the foremost authority on the subject.

In the horrible Harry Harlow experiments, he nevertheless proved that love and connection are more basic than food and water. The poor baby monkeys were taken away from their mothers, and had to choose between the fake cloth mom with no food/water, and the fake wire mom with food/water.

Harlow himself thought that the babies would stick with the wire mom the whole time because of the food and water, but found out the exact opposite. The babies clung to the cloth mom and when hungry, run toward the food/water, and then immediately run back to the cloth mom.

What this experiment proved is that the basic need of all humans is love and connection, more so than even food and water. When you don't have love and connection with others, it can lead to depression, anxiety and even suicide.

This sense of belonging is primary and deep, even in the most "macho" rituals, American football. By being a diehard fan of one team, you embrace other fellow fans. You see strangers hugging each other, sharing food and beer in these "tail-gate" parties. There's a huge sense of connection if you ever participated in one of these parties.

Having self-compassion sounds soft and fluffy, but in reality, it can be very tough and painful at times, as we will see down the road.

PROBLEM ONE: Comparing ourselves to others leads to disconnection and suffering

At least in the Western world, we live in an extremely competitive society where we must excel, and it's not "good enough" to be average, you have to be above average.

This is so illogical, because we can't be above average in all things, and there are always going to be people who are more beautiful, smarter, more successful than us.

Sadly, by comparing ourselves to others and being competitive in wanting to be above-average, people tend to look down upon others to feel better about themselves.

We may get a rush from having higher self-esteem when we mistakenly feel that we are more "successful" than another person.

However, if we meet someone who is more "successful" than us, then our self-esteem plummets, and we feel like crap.

Therefore, comparing ourselves to others leads to this emotional see-saw. If we find we're better, we get elated, if we don't measure up, we get depressed.  Even worse, when we protect our self-image to avoid feeling bad about ourselves, we don't acknowledge our faults, rather blaming the other person, even though "it takes two to tango".

This leads to ongoing conflicts, which causes disconnection from your loved ones. Further, by not seeing our flaws, that leads to stagnation and lack of growth, because how can you improve if you don't acknowledge your faults?

The solution to prevent these comparisons is self-compassion. Stop judging and evaluating ourselves altogether! Don't label ourselves as "good" or "bad" but rather accept ourselves openly, and treat ourselves with kindness like a best friend.

Does this work? Yes! By having self-compassion you accept yourself because you're like everybody else! Everyone has flaws, we're no different. By accepting ourselves for who we are, then we can accept others as well, and there's no reason to compare.

When you love and truly accept yourself, you're not going to look down on those who are less fortunate. Likewise, you're not going to have that sinking feeling that you're not doing enough when you see others drive fancy cars.

Caveat: There are many people who are rather harsh with themselves, but would never be that way with others. However, by being nasty to yourself, you're not going to feel good about yourself.

Why not pursue Win/Win where you're compassionate towards yourself and others?

I notice that I tend to feel sour when someone I dislike becomes more successful (comparing), and I get down on myself for not being that successful. Then I feel bad that I can't forgive the person and let go. It's an absolutely awful feeling, it doesn't do me any good, and certainly not to the more successful person. I really hate that pinched soul feeling.

Next, I continue to feel bad about myself for not being charitable, and this spirals downward to being angry with myself, "why can't I just forgive!".

However, when I have self-compassion and realize that forgiveness is something I struggle greatly with, and indeed a lot of people have the same issues, I can be more patient with myself and move toward being less judgmental.

Allowing yourself to be kind to yourself humanizes you (as you suffer just like everyone), as well as humanizing others because you understand deep down that they're going through same and/or different struggles as well.

In other words, as part of humanity, you are a worthy person, just like everyone else. When you see yourself as different than others, that again leads to feeling disconnected and not belonging to humanity.

Indeed, dehumanizing others leads to disconnection, which has led to unspeakable crimes against humanity. By seeing "non-Aryan" groups as other and less than human, it was easy for an entire nation to exterminate and torture people "because they're not like us".

PROBLEM 2: Feeling lonely and isolated

We looked at the first part of self-compassion which is self-kindness: gentle understanding of ourselves, rather than being critical and judgmental.

The second part of compassion we briefly touched upon. Why should we be kind to ourselves? Because we're all part of humanity. As we're kind to others, then it makes logical sense to be kind to ourselves.

The concept here is "we're all in this together". We recognize this common human experience of suffering, acknowledging the interconnected nature of our lives (Harry Harlow experiment), indeed life itself.

Therefore, compassion is relational. By seeing people as part of humanity, rather than "other" as the Nazis did, we feel connected.

As explained above, our deepest need is to belong, but when you compare yourself to others, this disconnect leads to loneliness. The KKK feel superior to others because they're white, and the "other" is not. The same can be said of Men, Women, Democrats, Republicans, Americans, Russians, Christians, Muslims, and the list goes on. We're part of this group, therefore, we're superior to this other group. Fanatical group identity is dangerous as it leads to disconnection and even genocide. 

However, if you refuse to hold this view and have compassion toward yourself and others, regardless of group affiliation, you have connection. Instead of seeing differences, you reframe and see how we're so similar to one another. We all want love and connection; that's our similarity.

So when our sense of self-worth and belonging is grounded in simply being human, we can't be rejected or cast out by others. It makes no sense to say that you're rejected by humanity, because you're human.

Remember your shared humanity. That can help you to have compassion for who you are. It helps to have others be kind toward you, but they can't be there with you 24/7. However, you can be with yourself 24/7, so you might as well be kind to yourself using the "best friend" approach discussed in this post.

PROBLEM 3: Suffering

This is the hard part of self-compassion. Self-kindness and common humanity we discussed above. The third and last step is mindfulness.

You must be aware of your suffering, but in a balanced way, where you neither diminish, or make it out to be worse than it is. I tend to make a mountain out of an ant-hill.

Therefore, in this third part of self-compassion, you need to be mindful - clear seeing and nonjudgmental acceptance of what's occurring in the present moment.

You're facing up to reality, neither underestimating or over-exaggerating things. First step is to recognize when you're suffering instead of suppressing it, because you can't heal what you can't feel. Be aware of your pain. By stuffing and ignoring pain, it can explode.

A good analogy of awareness is thus: Awareness is the blue sky. Your feelings and thoughts are the birds flapping around. Identify with the sky, instead of the birds. If you remain in awareness (i.e. sky) and not react to the thoughts and feelings (birds), you can be calm and centered as the sky doesn't shift and change in a feckless manner.

You can't change your thoughts and feelings very well, but you can change your reactions to them. There are many meditation techniques, but the key here is to hold and be aware of the pain, and don't numb it.

Indeed, people who suffer from PTSD tend to numb their emotions, as a very understandable mechanism to avoid feeling the immense pain of trauma.

But by having this numbing of emotions, they can't feel the positive emotions of joy, creativity, love. When you numb, you numb all emotions. Often, people who suffer from PTSD say that they're living zombies and they don't know how to have fun anymore.

The hard work in PTSD involves working through the painful memories in a safe, secure environment. The acknowledgment, and being one with the pain, is the really difficult part of self-compassion.

One example that makes us all feel bad about ourselves is when we hear a baby crying which irritates us, but we judge ourselves for having these thoughts, "what a horrible person I am for having that thought, it's only a baby, a nicer person would feel sympathy rather than being triggered".

However, if you have self-compassion, you stop the judgment. You become aware (sky) of the irritation (birds) you're having, you acknowledge the negative thought, while recognizing that surely a lot of people would feel the same way, and the thought will eventually pass!

A silly example is when I went to a party. I tend to need at least 5 large glasses of wine and/or beer to feel socially comfortable. The extremely uncomfortable feeling of being socially awkward has been too hard for me to deal with.

However, at a recent party, I decided not to drink - this wasn't too daring, because there were only 3 people at the party that I don't know that well. I decided to practice self-compassion, since I just completed reading the book.I decided to be one with being socially awkward.

What helped me was chanting exactly how I felt, "socially awkward, socially awkward, socially awkward". However, after 1 hour (I'm "slow to warm up"), I stopped feeling awkward, and I ended up enjoying being in the moment and having meaningful connections.

I'm not sure if this strategy would work if I'm in a party with people I barely know, but this is a small step to being aware.

Dr. Neff recommends that when you feel suffering, to have a mantra, in your words, along this line:

This is a moment of suffering
Suffering is part of life
May I be kind to myself in this moment
May I give myself the compassion I need

I kind of like Brene Brown, Ph.D. (author of Daring Greatly) mantra where one of her interviewees, when in pain would simply say, "pain, pain pain". Or you can say "ouch, ouch, ouch", to acknowledge the pain, as well as the rest of the mantra as suffering being part of humanity, and to give yourself kindness and compassion. It's best if it's in your own words.

On a positive note, when you have awareness, you're going to have awareness of positive emotions too! In this situation, you can hold it in loving awareness and really make that feeling bloom! You can experience love and joy with more awareness and rejoice in it - it actually overflowed to my coworkers and strangers!

Using the three part component of self-compassion as a way toward love and connection, it helps you to deal with pain and suffering.

I then chuckled at Dr. Neff's stages of self-compassion, because I went through the same thing. Initially, as I had self-compassion, I had this outpouring of love toward my coworkers, and work was light - I actually made some rather creative suggestions which surprised even me. I was enamored with self-compassion.

However, I then saw the hard work of self-compassion. It doesn't take the pain away at all, rather it helps you to be more resilient and deal with pain in a more effective way.

Instead of numbing or burying your feelings, which will pop up again, as survivors of trauma would all attest, in the form of disturbing intrusions, horrific nightmares and flashbacks, rather self-compassion holds you in awareness.

With self-compassion, you gain the resilience to work on painful emotions, feelings and thoughts head on. While having compassion for yourself that you're suffering like the rest of the world, and being aware of the pain, you can wait for the pain to pass. You can weather these negative emotions. This leads to emotional resilience, and with practice, you become better and better at it.

PROBLEM 4: Being successful

If you think about it, if you see someone more successful than you, and he brags to you about all the things he bought, where you "only" have a run of the mill sedan, it'll be hard to be friends with him.

Therefore, what if you're highly successful, does this mean you'll be disconnected from others? If you have self-compassion, no! As part of humanity (principle 2 of self-compassion), you'll have shared joy.

You are concerned for your own well-being as well as others, so you want both to succeed! By recognizing our inherent connectedness, Dr. Neff writes, "When we're part of a larger whole, we can feel glad that 'one of us' has something to celebrate".

You celebrate with exuberance in the success of others with self-compassion. In fact, with self-compassion, you can genuinely feel that way, instead of grudgingly when you see your friends being more successful than you.

Instead, armed with self-compassion, you become aware of other people's positive traits and fully appreciate them, not taking them for granted. You rejoice in yourself, just as you rejoice in others.

PROBLEM 5: I'm not going to be successful if I have self-compassion

The opposite is true. So many psychological studies have shown that intrinsic motivation is more powerful than extrinsic motivation.

If you're stuck in the self-esteem, need to prove myself trap, you're doing things to be successful, to look smart, athletic so that you can be admired, which strokes your ego. This is extrinsic motivation.

Let's say the activity is very grueling, streaming as a career. With extrinsic motivation, your self-esteem increases when your viewer numbers go up, and then it crashes when your number goes down.

I know this very well. In the early stages of streaming, I actually got depressed when my viewer number went from 10 to 9, WTF!

But you still stream for those numbers because when you grow, your self-esteem does as well, and I did get emotional high's when I got an average of 20 in one month - it's like a drug!

However, during summer, when many are off on vacation, your numbers tend to be lower for the next 3 months. Since you're streaming for self-esteem and those numbers, you may be demoralized and then give up.

Further, by wanting to be successful so you can prove yourself as the "better" streamer (stroking your ego), you're afraid to take creative risks, make mistakes, for fear of losing viewers. You then look "wooden" which is the death-knell in entertainment. You keep to a regular script which can get stale, also another way to make yourself bored and not wanting to stream anymore.

However, if you have self-compassion, which leads to awareness of what you truly want in life, you decide to stream because you love the process as well as your viewers.

You enjoy the connection and the challenge of negotiating chat and gameplay, and finding new creative angles to be entertaining.

This is intrinsic motivation, you're doing something because you want to do it. You don't care if you fail and your numbers drop like flies, because your self-esteem isn't harmed in any way, because you have self-compassion.

If you do something "dumb" while streaming, you'll be able to do your "ouch" mantra, hold the embarrassment, and move on, with emotional resilience. You can take enormous risks (historically leading to major advancements in technology and innovation) because you simply don't care about social rejection or judgment, or low viewer numbers. You are authentic and free.

If you're stuck on an issue with streaming, you're not afraid to ask for help for "fear of looking stupid". In other words, you're not controlled by societal pressures when you have self-compassion.

You do your own thing with utmost courage, authenticity, honesty and integrity, screw the rules! Contrary to what people think, self-compassion isn't "wimpy", but bad-ass! What's more bad-ass than being true to yourself and a "rebel".

At any rate, it appears that those who do something they absolutely love tend to be more successful than someone who's doing it to prove themselves.

When you love something, you never get tired of doing it, to the point where you may have to work on self-care issues such as eating regular meals and getting enough sleep (I'm thinking specifically video gaming).

When you're doing something to prove things, you're going to be demoralized when there's a glitch, a temporary obstacle, and failure, and you may quit altogether.

The person who's spending and practicing that many hours because of the enjoyment will tend to be better at the activity than someone who quits in fits and starts due to obstacles in the way.

I wanted to outline the three components of self-compassion here, and present the major arguments for self-compassion.

There are many exercises in the book that I won't outline here, so if you feel that the concept of self-compassion makes sense and can make a difference in your life, I highly recommend Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself. 

I found the concept of self-compassion jump started me on being way more pro-active in self-care and fulfilling my specific goals. Perhaps borrow the book from the library or look through the book at the bookstore. Do the exercises that resonate with you. Above all have self-compassion!

Note: I have been including the How of Happiness link in the bottom of all my posts, but I found Dr. Neff's Self-Compassion equally important, so I'll be alternating posts with these books.

Detroit: Become Human Review (PC/Epic Store)

Written by Alexander O. Cuaycong and Anthony L. Cuaycong

Title: Detroit: Become Human
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Quantic Dream
Genre: Action, Narration
Price: $24.99
Also Available On: PS4

---

Gamers have long learned to be wary of releases trumpeted as "story-driven" experiences. Time and time again, these titles have proven unworthy of the hype; lacking focus in gameplay elements, they wind up being little more than amusing distractions. And such seemed to be the fate of Detroit: Become Human when it first hit store shelves in early 2018. Written by noted developer David Cage and published by Paris-based Quantic Dream (which he not coincidentally founded), it seemed consigned to suffer the same fate of other games in its genre. After all, it did fall into the same traps, showing, on the outside, an ostensible over-reliance on quick-time events (QTEs) and button prompts, a devaluation of photorealistic graphics with wonky controls, and predisposition for heavy-handed messaging.

For all the misgivings, however, Detroit: Become Human actually manages to stand out. Even as it does struggle on occasion, it delivers on its promise to keep gamers who brave its rougher edges immersed from the get-go. It certainly tells its story in compelling fashion: Androids have become widespread in use, practically serving as the titular city's workforce — albeit not without complications. Friction with humans during this tumultuous period is seen through the unique perspectives of three androids: Connor, an investigator hot on the pursuit of rogue elements; Kara, a housekeeper forced to put up with her abusive owner; and Markus, a crusader bent on freeing other androids from virtual enslavement.

Each branch of Detroit: Become Human provides a compelling vantage point: Scenarios alternate from character to character, giving gamers the opportunity to shape the stories as they please. By interacting with objects, choosing dialogue replies, and succeeding or failing in QTEs, they wind up influencing important parts of the overarching narrative; who lives, who dies, who gets hurt, and so on. It's far from a novel concept, and Quantic Dream has explored it before — in Heavy Rain, released in 2010, for example. While the gameplay is similar, however, the impact of choices now appears more pronounced and more pliable to change and interaction.

Indeed, Detroit: Become Human offers a whole swath of alternate storylines, each fully capable of leading gamers down many different, smaller paths with their own variations. It even goes out of its way to underscore the disparity in choices, showing glimpses of what could have been instead of what is. Needless to say, it winds up highlighting its immense replay value. And, in this regard, it is aided in no small measure by its oppressive atmosphere, engaging dialogues, and outstanding audio-visual presentation. As good as it may have looked and sounded when it debuted on the Sony PlayStation 4, it provides an even better experience on the personal computer. It runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, and offers both controller and keyboard support.

To be sure, Detroit: Become Human is far from perfect. In fact, it suffers from a variety of flaws that are hard to ignore. As is typical of Cage's outputs, it focuses heavily on its story and movie elements rather than gameplay, and the bias shows. While the narrative does allow for independence of action, there is a decided lack of flair and precision in execution. Most of the interaction is possible only through QTEs, or through the efforts of gamers in awkwardly nudging the particular character they're controlling against the environment until a button pops up. Neither makes for spontaneity.

Parenthetically, Detroit: Become Human can be ham-fisted. While admittedly engaging, the story suffers from a very glaring lack of subtlety. For instance, the drunken cop that Connor partners up with has about as much nuance as the abusive father and owner that Kara must serve. That's not to say that the characters aren't interesting; they do have their own arcs that depend on gamer choices while serving to further the enveloping narrative. At the same time, they bank on tropes seemingly plucked from a tome of cliches.

Still and all, Detroit: Become Human stands out as Cage's best work by far. It presents a captivating story built around oppression. Never mind its decision to chuck subtle beats in favor of maximum impact. For all its haphazard storytelling, it does an outstanding job of sucking gamers in at the outset and keeping them engrossed until the very end. And, at $24.99, it gives excellent bang for the buck as a 15-hour ride showcasing the best technology has to offer.

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THE GOOD

• Great story beats with interesting characters
• A plethora of alternate dialogue and paths to take
• High replay value

THE BAD

• Fairly unimaginative gameplay, with majority based on exploration and QTEs
• Cliched characters and story set pieces
• Relatively short length

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RATING: 8/10

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