Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition Review (PS4)

Dynasty Warriors is a long-lived series from Tecmo-Koei.  The basic premise of every game in the series is to select your favorite Chinese warrior and whoop every ass you can find, whether they be simple peons or mighty warlords.  Essentially, you're playing Final Fight, but with people who really existed and in battles they actually fought.  Some BS is thrown in for added excitement (like superpowers and single-handedly beating a thousand people in a single battle), but it's mostly retelling history for those who are too lazy to study Chinese history.  Some view the series as an action-oriented companion to the more strategic Romance of Three Kingdoms series, which covers the same period of time (roughly from 184 AD to 280 AD) and features the same characters.  Anyway, let's dive into Dynasty Warriors 8: Complete Edition.

At it's heart. the game is the same as it's been for quite some time.  As mentioned before, you'll select a warrior from an impressive roster and trot out onto the battlefield to enjoy an ass-kicking buffet.  You'll beat on peons of assorted colors, almost like you're angry at a pack of Skittles.  Some peons have swords, some have shields, some use magic, but they all generally put up little resistance.  They, usually run up to you and stand there with their weapons drawn, throwing a slash on occasion just to prove they have a pulse.  There are some generic officers mixed in there who have a little more fight in them, but not much.

It's the selectable characters you have to watch out for.  They put up the most fight.  While they are still easy enough to kill by themselves, if these guys manage to come five or ten deep, you'll be in for one heck of a fight.  Seriously, there will be times where you'll be fighting three or four playable characters accompanied by six or seven generic officers (who suddenly won't seem so generic) and they'll all be hacking at you like bloodthirsty lumberjacks trying to cut down a human tree.  Yes, you do have allies, but they tend to be weak and stupid like the peons.

Peons as far as the eye can see.  The screen can fill up to the point where you can't find your character.

Some missions have different objectives.  You may have to protect a base or ally, losing the mission if you for to do so.  Make no mistake, you WILL have to do it, because it doesn't matter your ally is a badass like Guan Yu with a full life bar and facing ten peons.  If you aren't there, your allies will struggle to fight those peons if you aren't at least there supervising them.  In this way, the game can get challenging because you might face weird dilemmas.  For example, you could be in a situation where your commander is on the frontline and about to die, but your base (on the other side of the battlefield) is about to fall.  If your commander dies or the base falls, you'll lose the mission.  You'll have to take a wild guess as to whether to save the commander or the base (and hope you guess right).  And you can't screw around when the warning prompt comes up, because bases can fall and allies can (and usually will) die literally the very next second.  So the challenge isn't (usually) in the fighting, but in the situations the game puts you in.  It can be some BS.

As stated earlier, the roster is impressive, featuring over 80 characters.  Favorites and mainstays like Cao Cao and Zhuge Liang are present, along with newcomers like Cheng Gong and Deng Ai.  For the perverted gamer, there are plenty of cute girls to drool over.  Naturally, you'll find some you like and some you don't.

Look at all the characters.

A game just isn't complete without hot women.

So what all do you get.  You may notice the words Complete Edition in the title, implying that this isn't vanilla Dynasty Warriors 8.  You not only get Dynasty Warriors 8, but you also get DW8 Xtreme Legends and all the content that goes with said titles.  Story mode, free mode, challenge mode (which has five modes of its own), and ambition mode (my personal favorite) are all present, enabling you to beat ass under different stipulations.  Tired of fighting?  Then check out the gallery to ogle your characters and weapons or the encyclopedia for a light educational experience.  There's something here for everyone.

If you like animals, you can ride horses, elephants, and even bears

Story mode is the feature mode, allowing you to play as an officer from the Chinese kingdoms of Wei, Wu, Shu, and Jin.  They trying something different with the story mode in this game.  In past games, you started off with the Yellow Turban Rebellion, no matter who you picked.  In this game, you start off in different places in the timeline.  For example, the Wei story starts off in the unenviable position of escaping Luoyang, a scenario which has you running for your life from Lu Bu.  Trust me, you don't want that guy to catch up to you this early in the game.

Speaking of Lu Bu, this game actually gets him right.  Along with the Wei Wu, Shu, Jin, and Other stories, the is also a story centered around Lu Bu, the baddest ass in the game.  In it, you can play as people like Diaochan, Zhang Liao, and of course Lu Bu.  In this mode, you can really feel his power, doling out beatings and rape all over the battlefield.  Other selectable characters are like peons by comparison in this mode.  Even badasses like Guan Yu and Xiahou Dun are nothing more than flies to be swatted down by his spear.  Lu Bu has always been a selectable character in the series, but he finally FEELS like Lu Bu and he is glorious.

Select this story for a true Lu Bu experience.

Marvel at Lu Bu in all his glory.

In the end, Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition is the definitive version of DW8 and in many ways, the definitive game in the entire series.  Multiple modes enable you to beat ass just the way you like.  The difficulty is upped, so hardcore gamers will be happy.  The encyclopedia provides a nice slice of Chinese history for historians to devour.  If you can't get enough of Chinese badasses beating on peons and other Chinese badasses this is the game for you.  Play it.

Videogame Hotties: Alice Nakata

Mai Shiranui is the queen of the King Of Fighters franchise.  Over the years, she's had some stiff competition in characters like Chae Lim, Athena Asamiya, Blue Mary, Leona, and Whip among others.  King Of Fighters 14 introduces some new competitors to challenge Mai for her crown.  Of all of them, Alice Nakata comes out on top.

That is a seriously low top.

Alice looks like an amalgamation of Terry Bogard and Mai Shiranui, wearing Terry's trademark hat and falling out of her top like Mai.  She, in fact is not related to either of them.  She's simply a fan of Terry.  Oh, and she's hot, too.

It may not look like it, but she is wearing shorts...

...see?

She's kind of tricky to use and she doesn't have a projectile attack.  But she can run, jump and kick (just like everyone else).

Alice runs.

This jumpkick does not impress Kula Diamond, but those truckers seem to like it.

Alice bounces around with the queen herself.

Tossing the Queen like week-old garbage.

Aim those specials right or wind up on your ass.

And that's Alice, Mai's strongest competitor yet for KOF's hottest woman.  Check her out in King Of Fighters 14.

Nerd Battle: Yumi vs. Kula Diamond

She is the queen of ice.  She artfully uses ice as a weapon and even as transportation.  She doesn't just look cool, literally is cool.  It's Yumi from Senran Kagura...or is it Kula Diamond from King of Fighters.  Uh oh.  You know what time it is.  Nerd battle!

The Ice Queen of Gessen goes against...

...the Ice-Skating Princess of Team K'.

Yumi is the leader of Gessen Girls' Academy.  Everyone kisses her ass.  Kula Diamond, on the other hand, just walks around kissing the ass of K'.  In terms of influence, there's not denying who stronger.

It terms of looks, both girls are cute in different ways.  Yumi is the girl you'd be proud to have hanging on your arm as a girlfriend.  Kula Diamond is cute like a little sister, which is to say you'd never date a girl like her.  Kula's appearance is only bolstered by her childlike personality.  Yumi takes looks.

Kula is a little cutie, but honestly...

...do you really think she can compete with this.

Fighting ability is where the battle gets interesting.  Both girls are deceptively good fighters.  Yumi can use her ice to summon ice vortices to mow down countless peons and fellow highly-skilled high school ninja.  She can even survive a three-on-one ass-kicking and still come out on top.  Kula may not be able to mow down peons (because King Of Fighters doesn't have peons) but she can defeat some of the cheapest bosses in videogame history with a little bit help.  So, Yumi can fight more opponents, but Kula's enemies are tougher.  Still, anyone who's ever played Senran Kagura Estival Versus knows how daunting a task fighting three main characters at a time can be, especially if they're all transformed.  Yumi can still win the big, tough battles.  Fighting is a tie.

Alice picked the wrong day to wear shorts.

Kula performing open-face surgery on Alice.

Yumi rains down icy death.

Yumi's ice surfing is second to none.

Time for the wrap-up.  Kula Diamond is tough and cute, but Yumi is all that and so much more.  She's hot, deadly, and has a better feel to her.  Kula can ice skate, but Yumi can surf on ice and looks cooler doing it.  Kula may have a little more personality, but she's too childish whereas Yumi is more mature.  Kula's not a bad character, but Yumi is better.  Yumi wins.

Deadly and efficient, Yumi takes this one.

Cities Skylines Review (PS4)

For years SimCity 4 had been my city builder of choice.  It's the one game in the genre that I always go back to.  Just my opinion, but SimCity 4 is the greatest city builder of all time.  Then, Cities Skylines for the PC came around.  I bought the game only to find that neither of my computers could run it.  One computer would overheat and hard crash (those darned A processors) and the other played the game, but it was slow to the point of being unplayable (those darned Pentium processors).  I was crushed.  I lost all hope of playing it until I heard that Cities Skylines was coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.  I said to myself, "Hey!  I own a PS4.  Why don't I pick it up now?"  So how does it stack up?

Yes, you can make your city look just like this.

While I can't make a real comparison to the PC version, the PS4 version is highly playable.  Everything seemed smooth and looked good.  The only real difference that you don't have to play the PC version to know is that you won't have access to the countless mods.  That's right.  This version is borderline vanilla.  Of course that doesn't mean you can't still have fun.

Cities Skylines plays like most city simulators.  First you select the area you want to build the city in.  Then, you lay down roads, paint zones, and provide essentials (such as water and power).  As the city grows, you'll be able to provide your citizen needs and want like parks, better energy buildings, better roads, better schools, healthcare, and public transportation.  All the while, you have to make sure citizens have enough water and power as they Tweet what you're doing right and wrong.

As the city grows, perks will get unlocked.

The game also allows you to make districts, which also you make rules apply to some citizens, while others don't have to follow those rules.  For example, if you wanted a certain neighborhood to not have pets, you simply draw a district over the desired area and enact a pet ban on that specific area.  Districts also enable you to specialize industries.  If you want area of industry to specialize in forestry, simply plop down some industry tiles near some trees, then draw a forest district over them, and the tiles you laid with act accordingly.  Each kind of district has it's own tab, so you don't have to worry about laying down a ore industry district when you meant to lay down residential district with a high-rise ban.

One thing you must know is that this game is large in scale.  The game starts you out in a square that's about the size of an average SimCity.  You can expand your city up to eight times for a grand total of nine squares.  In other words, your cities can get HUGE if you want them to.  Yes, you have to buy these square, but it's cheap to do so (most buildings you plop down cost more).

See that square in the picture.  Your city can grow up to nine times that size.

As mentioned before, the game looks good.  There are some parodies of businesses you'll instantly recognize, like Penny (or Denny's) and Pancakes International (IHOP).  Also, what you see is indicative of what's really happening.  You'll watch as fuel trucks actually deliver fuel to the power plants so they can generate power.  When a crime is in progress, you can see the cops leave the police station, drive to the seen of the crime, then got out of their cars and actually walk into the house where the disturbance is happening.  It really is awesome the amount of detail that went into the visual.

Denny's and IHOP, almost right next to each other.

Look at how that fire lights up the night sky.  Burn, baby burn.

The music is meh.  It has sort of a superhero vibe to it.  It can be loud, but you'll probably tune it out while you tune up your city.  It's not bad.  It just doesn't seem to fit.  The zones you lay and buildings you plop down have their own sounds, too.  Get near a school and you'll hear kids playing.  Go by a fire station and you'll hear a phone ringing.  Like the visuals, a lot of detail when into this area.

So what all can you do?  Well, you can build.  And build.  And build some more.  Oh, you can expand your borders occasionally.  Then there is the micromanagement aspect.  You'll unlock buildings, roads, parks and other good crap.  Typical stuff from a city builder.  It's the execution where this game shines and ultimately what sets it apart from the average city simulation.

So how does Cities Skylines measure up to SimCity 4?  SimCity 4 is still the better game.  In SimCity 4, you could do everything you can here.  Plus, that game had better music, more music, and the ability to turn songs on and off.  Also, there's the ability to jump into cars and go on special missions to unlock buildings.  Or you could just drive around.  None of that is present in Cities Skylines.

A beautiful scene, despite the factories spewing smoke into the air.

Okay, so the game is inferior to SimCity 4.  But is it a bad game?  Heck, no, especially if you like city simulators.  SimCity 4 is still the king, but Cities Skylines is the prince who could one day inherit the throne.  BS (like people saying they don't have power when they do) pops up from time to time, but nothing game-breaking.  The worst part of the game is that you won't have access to the mods and DLC that PC players have.  You still have milestones to unlock lots of neat stuff.  If you have a computer that can handle it, get it on PC.  As for PS4 version, I still give it a strong recommendation.  Don't miss this one.