Walking Dead Video Game Season 2: "All That Remains" Review

It's been a while since Telltale Games launched an episode of the Walking Dead, but The Walking Dead Season 2: Episode 1 All That Remains has finally been released. I warn you that this review is full of spoilers and Mature Rated content, so no one underage read this.

At the end of season one, Clementine said good-by to the infected Lee and left him to his fate to turn into a zombie or put a mercy bullet in his head, depending on your choice. If you hadn't pissed off or burnt bridges with the survivors in your group, then you had a choice of who you hope would care for Clementine after you died. I choose to give her to Omid and Christa.

You start the game with Omid and the fully pregnant Christa. It seems like you are a happy group and surviving despite all that happened.

When you enter a rest room, Clementine is robbed by a female raider. Omid tries to comes to Clementine's rescue, but being the classic goof that he is, Omid fatally shot. Leaving Clementine and Christa to survive alone.

The game flashes forward 16 months later, and Christa and Clementine are someone near North Carolina, Christa no longer has the baby.  Clementine is looking thin and Christa seems to be at her wits end. Christa encourages Clementine to learn the skills needed to be self reliant.

This is where the game gets mature and taps into your moral compass. When Christa leaves to find wood, Clementine has to tend to the fire. Soon you hear noises of a struggle. When Clementine 's stumbles across Clementine surrounded by a group of male raiders. You have the option to help or leave Christa to her fate of getting raped and killed. Being the nice guy that I am, I distracted the men to let Christa escape. After putting yourself in danger to help Christa, the player gets in a battle between raiders and a horde of walkers. I won't spoil it, but the combat QTE is cleaner and livelier.

Clementine gets separated from Christa, and she meets a dog. The dog bites her really deep, and Clementine is injured. When Clementine is about to pass out in a forest, she is rescued by a new group of survivors. They take her in, but they don't trust her because of the bite on her arm.

Clementine is kid survivor, but she is no heartless Carl from the comic/tv show. Clementine isn't exactly a blank slate—at this point she has seriously seen some things—but do I want to make her jaded and cold, bitter about what she's been through? It's clear that Telltale put a lot of thought into how Clementine should work as a protagonist. She can, for example, play on the sympathy of adults, whimpering that she's just a helpless kid. Clem's faux innocence is a fun and welcome change from season one's Lee, who couldn't turn on the puppy dog eyes and manipulate someone by saying "I can tell you're nice." Well, I won't spoil the major story line any more.  You'll have to play the game to get the rest.

In conclusion, it's evident that Clementine will be an adjustment to control due to her limitations as a kid and not having an established support system to rely on, like in the previous game. Walking Dead Season 2: "All That Remains" is going to be a process of learning how to survive, who to trust, who to manipulate, who is your best option and who will be a burden.  It's a cold world full of assholes, and you must find your marks to play and know your enemies avoid in order to prevent becoming one of the walking dead.  Episode one is short an only 90 minutes, but it is worth a play through.  Compared to the previous episodes, it lacks a little in story and gameplay so I give it an 8.0/10

Dead Rising 3 Xbox One Launch Title Review

"And the devil did grin, for his darling sin is pride that apes humility" 

                                          -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Well, I made the decision of purchasing the Xbox One 1st for the next generation consoles.  Hate me if you like, but I'm american.  The first game i'm reviewing on the Xbox one is Dead Rising 3 by Capcom.  I feel Dead Rising is as much a launch staple to Xbox as Zelda is to Nintendo.

Dead Rising has always been one of my favorite underdog titles that pushed the Xbox to its limits, but fail short with a random script that never made sense.  This time around Dead Rising 3 actually did a remarkable job with presenting a well connected and a plot driven storyline.

The main character is Nick Ramos an orphan that has an interesting past and future. Nick is a young, insecure, but pure-hearted mechanic working for Rhonda Kreske at Wrench O'Rama.  For most of his life, Nick has been surrounded by bad people but protected by the tough mother figure, Rhonda, but the zombie outbreak forces Nick to mature in order to over-come his circumstances.

When the group of survivors are trapped by a horde of zombies, Rhonda establishes that Nick is a master mechanic that can build anything, and that's where the fun starts.  The best part of the Dead Rising 3 is the improved crafting introduced in Dead Rising 2.  Players no longer have to track down an work bench.  If you have the blueprint and part, then you can craft anything from combo weapons to combo vehicles.

Nick and the group of survivors escape, but soon Nick is bitten by a zombie and goes on a search for the Zombrex cure.  Nick's dilemma cause him to run into a few interesting characters and a love interest named Annie.  Later, players connect the dots and learn Annie is really Katie Greene from Dead Rising 2. Another connection is Nick is one of Carlito's time bomb children from Dead Rising 1.

Within the plot Dead Rising 1, 2, and 3 are connected by Isabella from Dead Rising 1.  Isabella is working with Marian, the villain from Dead Rising 2, but it is a 7th deadly sin bonus that I will not spoil.

Gameplay
The game itself is not visually stunning.  I admit there are improvements, such as more zombies on screen and inventory management, but honestly I feel like Dead Rising 3 could have been a Xbox 360 game.  You will run into the same glitches such as unresponsive or unintelligent NPC's in your party or invisible walls. These obstacles could be a reference to the Silent Hill franchise where developers admit they designed slow characters or glitches to handicap the player, but I attribute Dead Rising 3 design  flaws to rushing the game for the Xbox One launch release.

Graphics and Sound
Blood stays Nick as players slash through 1000s of zombies, mutants, and psycho bosses.  The graphics are a modest increase in design at best but not the innovation i'd expect from a next gen console.  Sound is a problem because I feel the zombie noise is a backtrack.  I killed every zombie in the room one time, and I could still hear zombie noises.

Storyline
I gave max points for storyline in Dead Rising 3 because this was the first time every character had a purpose in the storyline and helped carry the plot.  The psychopaths were a play upon the 7 deadly sins with Isabella being the finally deadliest sin, Pride.  I like the cameos from previous characters that I fell in love with such as Isabella, Chuck Greene, and Marian.  The only person I didn't see was Frank West, but I got a feeling the way he was referenced...a DLC may be on the way.

Score
Overall, Dead Rising 3 was a welcomed revisit to the first zombie horror survival series started in 2006. Dead Rising was the walking dead before the walking dead was created.  I have a lot of personal attachments to the game because I grew up on the Dead Rising series since 2006 to 2013.  Dead Rising 3 is not the best game of the next gen consoles, but if you're a fan of the series, you'd love Dead Rising 3.
I give Dead Rising 3 an 8.0/10.

Game of Thrones or Walking Dead Sunday

I'm late but finally caught on to the game of thrones on HBO.  This show really surprised me in terms of acting and writing.

It's a good option now that the Walking Dead season 3 has ended.  I can't believe I never heard of this show.   Shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men get my attention  because of the emmy awards, but the Game of Thrones is a sleeper hit.

I'm mainly obsessed with the Daenerys Targaryen character played played by Emily Clarke.  She portrays a princess sold to a tribe of salvage warriors in exchange for her brother being crowned king of their lost kingdom.  She starts out powerless but her magnetic personality gains her followers, and when her husband dies she manages to have subjects still loyal to her.

I must admit I am a Lannister fan.  Their family is complex but you understand why they take the actions they do.  My second favorite is Jon Snow the bastard.  He comes into a situation where is an outside that was never accepted by anyone.  When he joins the Watcher's, Game of Thrones version of the army reserves, he gains real friends and a chance to start his life over.  A series of bad choices leads him into the camp of the enemy, the Wildlings, but he has caught the eye of a young female warrior that seems like she is so to be wife.

Prince Joffery is hilarious and the Queen is on a whole other level of acting compared to the rest of the cast. You might remember her from 300 as the Queen of the Spartans.

iolence is worth the watne gets interest with each passing week.  This picture sums up the main characters, but some died in last season war so watch to see who is alive