The Game Awards, Best American Award Show?
This year's Game Awards is the first Game Awards I've seen, and I feel it's the best award show for its intended audience. It's been perhaps more than a decade since I've seen the other major awards such as the Emmy, the Grammy and Oscar Awards, but there's a reason why I stopped watching because they are boring, even though I enjoy music, movies and tv.
I think all awards shows should follow the programming of the Game Awards. I noticed that the show was very efficient. They immediately announce the category, the nominees, announce the winner, and speech. It seems like other award shows, this process drags on and on.
This is even more bloated by the number of ads, and this is where the Game Awards shines over the traditional awards. All of the ads are about video games, which are of interest to gamers because we want to know what games are coming out, unlike the Oscars where they might have advertisements that aren't related to movies, of which the intended audience may or may not be interested in. Often these ads are boring such as ads about detergent. The Game Awards gets rather funny ads such as these:
This one is from Bethesda:
https://youtu.be/DPl-YMq2WTM
and another from Psyonix:
https://youtu.be/l34F_zjsIVQ
There's one special musical guest, instead of so many musical guests that the show drags on even more if that's possible. This year's Game Awards musical guest, Phoenix, was rather pleasant, and thankfully performed one song.
Live audience of these traditional awards shows are going down, and it's probably because no one wants to sit through often bad musical entertainment, boring ads that aren't related to the subject at hand, and long drawn out speeches. They are often saved on DVR, to be fast forwarded. Or, to save even more time, read about after the shows end.
Not only is the Game Awards interesting, it was also informative as it highlights upcoming video games and is targeted toward the intended audience. If the other traditional American Awards shows can follow the concise and relevant format of The Game Awards, they might gain viewers.
Monster Hunter: World Beta Impressions
The Beta is everything I hoped for in a Monster Hunter! I completed all three missions solo on day of release. The trusted Monster Hunter sources, Arekkz Gaming and Gaijin Hunter were correct in reporting that the gameplay is very much like the old Monster Hunter series.
To enjoy the Beta more fully, definitely make use of the training room to test any weapons you're interested in. While testing out the weapons, the screen will show basic moves and recommended combos. Further, in the options menu under "Hunter's Notes", the basic moves and combinations are listed more concisely.
Instead of targeting the breakable barrels, it's better to practice on the un-breakable pole in the middle of the training area. Sometimes you can't continue combinations if the item breaks, so to play out the full set of combinations, it's best to target the pole. Further, it's easier to see damage numbers when the combinations play out fully, so you can find out which attacks/combination of attacks are the strongest.
Once you get used to the move-set of your weapons and ready to start the mission, you need to tweak some settings. In the options menu while in-mission, change the item wheel to type 2. In type 2, you chose the item and then press R3 to use. With type 1, you point to the item then release the buttons, and the item is supposed to register, but often it doesn't.
If you don't want to use the item wheel, look at the items at the very bottom right of your screen, and cycle through them using your D-Pad right and left arrow keys. Press square to use.
If you have a PS4, I would recommend favoring resolution. Here, I'm hoping the real game improves in the resolution. I would like it to be more crisp and clear, even if it means reducing texture details. However, this is infinitely improved from the 3DS counterparts where my friend couldn't coop with me because the graphics caused eye strain and headaches.
For the third, expert mission, Anjanath, please play this solo, or at least with 3 people on your team for multiplayer. Since initially I couldn't beat it the first time, a friend coop'd with me (he beat the mission solo) and we couldn't defeat it because of its large health pool, and we must've tried 8 times.
We found out that it couldn't be defeated when my friend saw the Rathalos do 1,500 damage to Anjanath when he was almost dead (signified by limping), and yet he still didn't go down. Between the two of us, we were doing at most 100 per hit. However, after these many defeats, when I played the quest solo, I was able to defeat Anjanath.
I believe in solo mode, the mission is scripted so that you can learn the basics of hunting, because at the end of my first successful solo mission run, they made sure Anjanath was stuck in an infinite trap. Next play-throughs against Anjanath, when I became more proficient, it only took a couple of combinations to take him down, otherwise I feel that they would have Anjanath move to a trap pit.
My friend and I then coop'd with his friend, and we were able to defeat Anjanath so with three people, the mission is doable. A two-player team may not do enough damage, so please avoid this frustration.
The Beta is proof that Monster Hunter: World isn't made to be "Easy" or simplified for Western audiences. Weapon and battle mechanics are just as complex and deep as they've always been. I'm hoping that I would love World even more than my current favorite, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.
Have you played the Beta and what are your thoughts?
This year's Game Awards is the first Game Awards I've seen, and I feel it's the best award show for its intended audience. It's been perhaps more than a decade since I've seen the other major awards such as the Emmy, the Grammy and Oscar Awards, but there's a reason why I stopped watching because they are boring, even though I enjoy music, movies and tv.
I think all awards shows should follow the programming of the Game Awards. I noticed that the show was very efficient. They immediately announce the category, the nominees, announce the winner, and speech. It seems like other award shows, this process drags on and on.
This is even more bloated by the number of ads, and this is where the Game Awards shines over the traditional awards. All of the ads are about video games, which are of interest to gamers because we want to know what games are coming out, unlike the Oscars where they might have advertisements that aren't related to movies, of which the intended audience may or may not be interested in. Often these ads are boring such as ads about detergent. The Game Awards gets rather funny ads such as these:
This one is from Bethesda:
https://youtu.be/DPl-YMq2WTM
and another from Psyonix:
https://youtu.be/l34F_zjsIVQ
There's one special musical guest, instead of so many musical guests that the show drags on even more if that's possible. This year's Game Awards musical guest, Phoenix, was rather pleasant, and thankfully performed one song.
Live audience of these traditional awards shows are going down, and it's probably because no one wants to sit through often bad musical entertainment, boring ads that aren't related to the subject at hand, and long drawn out speeches. They are often saved on DVR, to be fast forwarded. Or, to save even more time, read about after the shows end.
Not only is the Game Awards interesting, it was also informative as it highlights upcoming video games and is targeted toward the intended audience. If the other traditional American Awards shows can follow the concise and relevant format of The Game Awards, they might gain viewers.
Monster Hunter: World Beta Impressions
The Beta is everything I hoped for in a Monster Hunter! I completed all three missions solo on day of release. The trusted Monster Hunter sources, Arekkz Gaming and Gaijin Hunter were correct in reporting that the gameplay is very much like the old Monster Hunter series.
To enjoy the Beta more fully, definitely make use of the training room to test any weapons you're interested in. While testing out the weapons, the screen will show basic moves and recommended combos. Further, in the options menu under "Hunter's Notes", the basic moves and combinations are listed more concisely.
Instead of targeting the breakable barrels, it's better to practice on the un-breakable pole in the middle of the training area. Sometimes you can't continue combinations if the item breaks, so to play out the full set of combinations, it's best to target the pole. Further, it's easier to see damage numbers when the combinations play out fully, so you can find out which attacks/combination of attacks are the strongest.
Once you get used to the move-set of your weapons and ready to start the mission, you need to tweak some settings. In the options menu while in-mission, change the item wheel to type 2. In type 2, you chose the item and then press R3 to use. With type 1, you point to the item then release the buttons, and the item is supposed to register, but often it doesn't.
If you don't want to use the item wheel, look at the items at the very bottom right of your screen, and cycle through them using your D-Pad right and left arrow keys. Press square to use.
If you have a PS4, I would recommend favoring resolution. Here, I'm hoping the real game improves in the resolution. I would like it to be more crisp and clear, even if it means reducing texture details. However, this is infinitely improved from the 3DS counterparts where my friend couldn't coop with me because the graphics caused eye strain and headaches.
For the third, expert mission, Anjanath, please play this solo, or at least with 3 people on your team for multiplayer. Since initially I couldn't beat it the first time, a friend coop'd with me (he beat the mission solo) and we couldn't defeat it because of its large health pool, and we must've tried 8 times.
We found out that it couldn't be defeated when my friend saw the Rathalos do 1,500 damage to Anjanath when he was almost dead (signified by limping), and yet he still didn't go down. Between the two of us, we were doing at most 100 per hit. However, after these many defeats, when I played the quest solo, I was able to defeat Anjanath.
I believe in solo mode, the mission is scripted so that you can learn the basics of hunting, because at the end of my first successful solo mission run, they made sure Anjanath was stuck in an infinite trap. Next play-throughs against Anjanath, when I became more proficient, it only took a couple of combinations to take him down, otherwise I feel that they would have Anjanath move to a trap pit.
My friend and I then coop'd with his friend, and we were able to defeat Anjanath so with three people, the mission is doable. A two-player team may not do enough damage, so please avoid this frustration.
The Beta is proof that Monster Hunter: World isn't made to be "Easy" or simplified for Western audiences. Weapon and battle mechanics are just as complex and deep as they've always been. I'm hoping that I would love World even more than my current favorite, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.
Have you played the Beta and what are your thoughts?
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