Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Madden 17, No Man's Sky

​Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

• If you enjoyed the last Deus Ex game then you should be satisfied with this game as it feels quite a bit like the last game but with some refinements. 
• I played a bit of the last game a week before the release and the biggest improvement I noticed right away was the movement in and out of cover.  In the past game it felt a bit clunky but now it's smooth and I'm not making any accidental moves that take me out of cover.
• The graphics are more colorful as they moved away from all the gold and black theme which I kind of miss. 
• There are a few new augments to use that seem like the developers played some Dishonored.  Blink.  
• Everything else feels about the same.  You can either go in stealthy or guns blazing and they give you the tools to do both rather well. The hacking mini-game hasn't changed which is a shame I wish they could have made that a bit more technical.  
• I've put about 9 hours in and only played about 6 main missions.  The town is fully explore-able and the side missions are interesting so there is a lot of game there. 

Madden 17

• Another year another Madden and another year thinking this might be the time the game is good.  ​
• My biggest gripe of the past games has been atrocious blocking and they appear to have it fixed.  Sometimes there are blown assignments which is expected but overall the blocking seems great and the blockers will actually block the defenders.
• The better blocking also increases the effectiveness of the running game making it a valid play style for some teams.  The AI can also mount a decent run game with some impressive numbers which usually never happened before. 
• Playing defense also feels better as I can see the hole opening and then rush in to stop the runner or play safety and stop a long pass play.  They also fixed the sack issue from last year where you could get 7 or 8 sacks a game. 
• The presentation is also vastly improved.  The overlays look great and the new announcers actually sound enthused as they are reading their lines.  They are also updating the commentary weekly so you will hear new things each week of the season which is a nice touch.  Although I really don't want to hear them say Romo is out for 10 weeks when I fire up the game.   
• They still need to work on the halftime and end game shows as they are very plain and only show your game.  I really liked how NFL2k5 would give updates on all the games that week in the halftime show as it really helped immerse you in a season.  
• There are still things they can improve on but finally Madden feels like it finally made the upgrade to the new generation too bad it took them 3 years.  

No Man's Sky

• I actually did play a bit more last week that brought my total play time to about 18 hours which was a little unexpected.  
• The game can have a nice chill factor to it as you explore, which can be a bit calming after a hurried day.
• I hope they can add more substance to the game in the future that will bring me back in as the game does have potential.