Battlefield Hardline

Is it just me or does battlefield and call of duty release a game every year?  All jokes aside here is an interesting direction that the battlefield franchise is taking for the gaming experience.  This time the battlefield is the corrupt drug and crime filled streets of Miami, FL.

Battlefield Hardline plays as an episodic series of chapters that detail the rise and fall of Nick Mendoza, a street smart cop with moral dilemma that most battle between his values and the perks of corruption.  In each episode, the player is guided by Veteran Detective Khai Minh Dao voiced by the sexy Kelly Hu.  

In the storyline you gain a sense that Nick does not know who to trust.  Several characters on the side of justice such as his partner Detective Dao  plays both sides: justice and corruption.  This is where I felt the Battlefield Hardline became too Miami Vice meets Hawaii Five-O, and the game becomes a bad action movie.  Then the turning point of the game seem to make the choice for you, and you became the anti-hero.  I can't say too much without spoiling the ending, but you'll get a sense early on how things will turn out.

There was a lack of open world exploration, repeat enemies and arrest motion that made the game seem linear.  The voice acting and action sequences were kick ass but nothing new.  I have to say the game lack innovation.  It was a stereotypical action game, but that's really what you get from the Battlefield series most of the time.

Overall, I enjoyed Battlefield's attempt to take gamers somewhere off the battlefield, but more design was needed in order to make this a memorable game.  Other than few bugs here and there that can be fixed with patches, the Battlefield Hardline was a solid game.  Due to a lack of innovation and open world exploration like Batman Arkham City, I have to give Battlefield Hardline a 7.7/10.

Finally, a game worthy of the title new generation of gaming.  Bloodborne is the first game to impress me in a while.

Bloodborne parallels to Dark Souls in many ways. Instead of flask you use blood vials to recover health.  Instead of souls you farm echoes to increase you abilities.

Although Bloodborne mimics its predecessor Dark Souls, Bloodborne is its own game.  Bloodborne takes place in the city of Yharnam, a city curse with an epidemic that causes its citizens to transform into beast.  As a hunter, your duty is to find a cure and rid the land of the epidemic.

I won't spoil the experience, but I will state that I was impressed by the gameplay and fluid movements I experienced in each battle.  There were a lot of destructible environmental hazards and an overwhelming amount of challenging enemies that kept my interest as I roamed this dark gothic realm of Yharnam.  Chalices and hidden boss battle add to the adventure that makes the game a worthy contender for game of the year.

The one aspect I found  challenging was that the Bloodborne enemies think more when fighting you. In Dark Souls games, you can bait enemies into a fight.  In Bloodborne, enemies will retreat or won't transverse environments that aren't an advantage to them.  You have to work hard to win, but the Dark Souls' proverb, "if it bleeds, then you can kill it" still exist in Bloodborne.

Overall, the Bloodborne is the best that's out there for the newer titles.  It's not legendary status like Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Final Fantasy 7 but Bloodborne is setting an example of what consumers should expect in new gen console gaming.  I give Bloodborne for the PS4 an 9/10.