Assassin’s Creed Mirage is meant to be a back to formula and a homage to the first game; with the classic social stealth assassinations and parkour the series was built on. Ubisoft Bordeaux’s first game developed is Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which follows the story of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a thief from the streets tortured by haunted dreams and visions of a djinn. Djinn/jinn are often alluded to in the Qur'an and stories like One Thousand and One Nights as sentient beings that occupy the space between the spiritual and the physical world. The story takes place during the Ninth Century Golden Age of Islam in Baghdad. Basim meets Roshan and is mentored by the Hidden Ones to become a Master Assassin. He will journey to Alamut, much like Altair traveled to Masyaf to train to become an Assassin among his peers in the order.

Upon his return to Baghdad and the surrounding desert and towns, Basim will utilize his parkour skills to seamlessly traverse through the four districts of Baghdad. To the southeast, the trade region of Karkh, to the north the industrial Harbiyah district, and to the west the scientific district of Abbasiyah which contained the House of Wisdom, in the center the gardens of the Round City or Madinat As-Salam. Basim will seek out side contracts, tools, and assassination targets at the Assassin’s bureaus. The menu in the game will allow Basim to chart out his investigation by collecting vital clues and assembling them in a chart that makes investigations and missions easy to track based on district and targets. It is through this research that Basim is able to stalk and identify his targets before going in for the kill. Mirage also presents the return of social stealth, Basim will have many skills and tools that will allow him to stealthily take down targets using both new and familiar abilities from the series’ past.

From Publisher 11 Bit Studios and Developer Starward Industries comes an all new narrative exploration experience, The Invincible. It is a science fiction, Astropunk styled, space exploration game that has the player assume the role of Yasna, a biologist on a research vessel sent to Regis III to search for signs of life. Things go wrong and Yasna wakes up with no memory of the expedition. The game unfolds with mystery after mystery as you explore the planet and attempt to find your crewmates, rescue them, and remember what happened. While the game is mostly a walking simulator, much like Firewatch, you will make lots of narrative conversational choices throughout the game as you chat over the radio with the Astrogator.

You’ll interact with classic Astropunk retro technology that seems heavily inspired by the 1950’s-1960’s technology in science fiction of the time as you seek to understand the mysteries of the planet and the factions that occupy it. While the game is narrated by an excellent cast, the pacing stays relatively flat. Even the most exciting moments are derived of tension when narrative choices ultimately lead to little confrontation, little risk, low stakes, before you’re back to exploring. The game is very immersive but if you’re not interested in biology and engineering talk, you might find some of the dialogue boring. I however enjoyed the immersion of researching the planet, theorizing what is happening, and seeing if the scientific method proves correct.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Campaign complete in about 8 hours. Very powerful in terms of story and narrative. The Campaign maintains the usual set piece action packed missions with Weapons Free missions throughout. The Weapons Free missions alter the pacing of the game and place the player in a boots on the ground situation where the choices of how to complete the objectives are left up to them.

To those familiar with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Trilogy of the early 2000’s these newer entries are often branded as remakes, when they are actually more a reimagining, with modern graphics, controls, etc. The story took some twists and turns away from what people may expect, it is not a note for note take of the original trilogy.

The events of the game keep you on the edge of your seat, wanting to know what is going to happen next. Whether it is stopping a terrorist attack, chasing a global fugitive, infiltrating a secret base or defending a location from an onslaught of enemies. The pacing is brilliant and I never wanted to stop as each mission had a reason to be part of the story and wasn’t merely just a chance to have a shootout in a different locale.

The cutscenes could easily be a Call of Duty movie. It's well acted, voiced, and beautifully rendered with cutting edge graphics. There were several times where I thought I was watching a movie, from the photorealistic graphics, to the camera angles, and the well written dialogue. I would very much enjoy deeper narrative journeys in the Call of Duty universe.

My first Impressions and gameplay of Hellboy: Web of Wyrd. Not a game I'd recommend. Clunky controls, actions on screen to my button presses were delayed or not registered. The low frame rate/animation of Hellboy himself is jarring to look at when the rest of the game world runs at a smooth 60fps. It's probably a creative choice, but it makes for quite the eyesore.

When people talk in cutscenes, their mouths don't move and the still angles make conversations boring. The enemy types are repetitive and boring which makes the game feel even more dated. The story doesn't really pull you in even after several hours of playing.

I saw people comparing the combat in this game to the Batman Arkham games and that couldn't be further from the truth, that's a comparison we shouldn't be making for any game, to be fair.

The comic inspired art is awesome, Lance Reddick voicing Hellboy is awesome. Getting perfect parries was gratifying. The fact that the game often wouldn't register my blocks/dodges in time made Hellboy and his already clunky combat, poor camera angles, and bad directional combat even worse. It's not a fun game to play, despite me being really curious, excited, and only wanting to play more out of desperation that maybe it will get better.

As I like to say, don't take my word for it. Make up your own mind by checking out my experience with the game as I highlight things I enjoy and things I found to be flawed. Some folks watched my video and found the game enjoyable. I'm happy for that too. Make your own choices. Thank you for checking this out.

9/30/23 Check out my video review and unboxing of the 8bitdo Retro Keyboard. Bluetooth/2.4G/USB-C, Hot Swappable, Gaming Keyboard with 87 Keys, Dual Super Programmable Buttons for Windows and Android. There are two editions, the N Edition (NES Themed) and the Famicom Edition. Dual Super Buttons - offers large, programmable keys A and B buttons! Map anything to the Super Buttons instantly without using software. Classic power status LED, with independent control panel. Supports 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2 for custom keyboard mapping. Unboxing Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSiKflGZp7VqqKaBxPttMgLP_IdIussAN Gear Reviews Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSiKflGZp7Vpgotlq-JJDnB1rELwVhs0U Purchase 8Bitdo Retro Mechanical Keyboard with my affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3t6vWKg Join My YouTube Community as a Member & support the channel for exclusive perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCchXCQbuqCbWs-kCpmS7rOw/join Let me know what you think in the comments below.