Mafia 3, Shadow Warrior 2, Battlefield One

Mafia 3

• Good
• The excellent story is presented like a TV documentary which is a fresh take on an open world game.   
• Great facial animations really bring out the virtual actors performances.  
• The atmosphere of the world really puts you in the late 1960's.  Everything feels authentic.  
• Fantastic soundtrack.
• Combat feels good and the brutal take downs are awesome.  
• As with all open world games there are some physics bugs which can be pretty hilarious. 
• Tons of collectibles including Playboys so be careful whose watching when you open them.  
• Bad
• Game play can feel repetitive.  The side quests are not varied enough. Go kill a guy or steal a car and drive to location. 
• Graphics are a mixed bag.  Most of the graphics are OK just don't look up at the sky.
• The AI can be pretty bad.  I've had instances where the guys are just standing against a wall. Other times though they will flank so it's hit or miss.  
• Final Thoughts
• The story is what is really keeping me playing the game as I want to see how it progresses.
• If you like open world games then you should give this a try.  

Shadow Warrior 2

• Good
• Lo Wang is back and has some great but crude dialog.  
• Awesome melee combat and gun play that has the pace and movement of Doom.  
• Ton and tons of loot.  The game feels a bit like Diablo/Borderlands as enemies will drop gems that you can equip on over 70 weapons.  You can also combine unused gems into greater gems. 
• Each weapon looks unique with their own animations.  You carry 8 at a time and it's fun to try different combinations.
• Each area is huge with a ton of secrets to find.  There is also some randomization in the levels so you will see different things if you revisit an area. 
• 4 player co-op through the whole 12 hour campaign. 
• No DRM so no issues playing at launch.  
• Bad
• The first game was a linear shooter with a great and funny story.  This game is more open world with a quest system so you have a main hub which has shops and NPCs that give you missions and you teleport to different areas to complete them.  It doesn't have the same feeling as the first game. 
• Could use a bit more enemy variety and a couple of more areas to explore.
• Final Thoughts
• The game is good for what it is I just wanted a true sequel to the first game. 

Battlefield One

• Good
• Haven't had any issues playing even at the midnight pre-launch.
• I really like the WWI setting as it does give a break from all the modern warfare games from the past couple of years.
• The weapons and systems are pretty simple but are still tons of fun.  
• The war tapes audio is back with some great sound effects.  
• They removed the browser interface.  You now launch the game like normal.  
• Yelled "Jump out!" while flying an airplane with Chad as the gunner 2 seconds before crashing into a mountain. We both died.
• Bad
• It's still Battlefield so you will die, respawn, run to your target, then get killed by a sniper. Repeat.
• When you die you have to hit space to respawn, not sure why it just doesn't take you to the menu automatically.
• No hardcore servers yet so it seems my enemies are bullet sponges while I die in 1 shot. 
• Final Thoughts
• If you like Battlefield then no reason to not get the game at release as there are no real issues at this time, but that could change when the game fully releases Thursday. 

Forza Horizon 3, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Bioshock Remaster

Forza Horizon 3

• An Xbox Anywhere title, buy digitally from the Xbox/Windows store and you can play on Xbox one and PC and you saves carry over.  The Xbox one version runs perfectly but the PC version has some issues.  
• The game has some really bad stuttering so I can't run the game at more than 30 fps, if I try 60 it will randomly dip to 48 or lower which is bothersome.   Luckily at 30fps the game does feel fine so it's not that big of an issue.
• My wheel wasn't fully supported until a few days ago, which was fixed in a Windows update, but the FFB is pretty weak.  I do have the Xbox One hub for my wheel so I can play connecting that way and it feels great I just can't rebind the buttons which I really need to do.  I downloaded Forza Apex and the FFB on that feels great so there is an issue with the implementation on FH.
• Even with those issues the game is amazing, the world they have created is really fun to drive in and the amount of cars is astounding.
• The game looks incredible, from the details in the cars to the rain effects everything about the graphics is amazing, the sky is the best sky I've ever seen in a game.
• Another A+ is the sound design. The game has some great radio stations but I've turned them off for now just so I can hear the car engines.  Shifting through gears is an audible sensation.  I enjoy each new car that I unlock.  
• There is a ton of content in the game, I've put in 8 hours and have only uncovered about a 1/4th of the map.   
• I think the game does have some rubber banding AI but in this type of game it's expected as they want to make each race exciting. I haven't found it aggravating, you don't have to come in 1st in order to progress which is nice.
• I like the rivals racing as you compete against your friends in basically time trials. Their times can be pretty difficult to beat especially since I am playing at an increased difficulty.  All the assists are off, simulation steering, and manual with clutch so there is a lot going on during a race.   
• You can play through the whole campaign in co-op which would be a ton of fun but so far none of my friends are playing.
• If you like car games then you should definitely pick this up.   

Deus Ex Mankind Divided
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• Finished the main campaign at around 28 hours.
• Apparently I missed one of the best side missions in the game so I may go back to an earlier save and try to play that.
• One of the great things about this game is the amount of ways to approach each situation.
• If you need to get into a room you could hack the door when no one is looking, find a guard that has a key card and take him out silently and grab the card, or move a heavy object that is blocking a vent that enters into the room.
• The game lets you spec your character so that you could use any number of these methods and I actually wish I had limited myself to only one.  
• The environment they provide for you to explore may not have the largest map size, but it's very detailed and has a ton of intricacies.  If I made myself only use vents to enter rooms then I would have to explore the world in different ways in order to find where they are hidden, which would make the role playing more immersive. 
• I did play through using non-lethal attacks so I didn't get to mess around with many of the cool perks and weapons the game provides so I may play through again to see how that holds up.
• I do recommend the game, it is the 2nd game in a trilogy so there are a ton of questions left unanswered.  I would suggest you play the first game before going in although they do have a video that sums up the previous game but both games are worth playing.  

Bioshock Remastered

• Really excited to play through the series again but a ton of issues with the PC version have kept me away.
• I owned all 3 games so I did get the update free but I'm still shocked at how poor the remaster was done.
• To enable 5.1 surround sound you have to edit an .ini file which is crazy as the original game had a menu option for that.
• The game has objects that disappear when I get close to them and some of the textures are flashing.  
• They are supposed to be releasing some fixes for the PC version soon. 
• I hear the console versions are better but they are missing some graphical elements that the older game had, but if you've never played you most likely won't care.  
• They did include some cool commentary about the making of the game which I want to see so hopelfully they can get the issues fixed.  
• I really like the Bioshock series and wish they did a better job at restoring the first 2 games.