When I first started gaming, my friend started me on WoW: World of Warcraft. It was fun playing with him but then he went and got a good job and left me in that world by myself. When I started having to coop with strangers as a noob, it was only then I realized how toxic gamers can be. I was new and trying hard to learn but they were super hardcore, super impatient, and some were downright mean. I had such a bad experience I swore off of multiplayer games. It’s only been recently that I have a dedicated gaming group of people who have mutual respect for each other regardless of skill level. Now when I go into games I don’t feel alone or bullied because my boys are with me.

It was one of them that got me to give multiplayer gaming another try and he suggested Helldivers 2 because he’s also playing it. The game doesn’t have a clear goal (in my opinion), it is limited open world and while you could play it single player, it isn’t meant for that. It’s multiplayer is where it excels and is an absolute blast when playing it with friends. You are fighting enemies on different planets to spread democracy and liberty and FREEEEDOOOOM! ! ! ! ! throughout the galaxy. That’s it. Nothing complicated at all. If you don’t like multiplayer, you still might want to give this one a try. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Grade: A-

Odyssey is the first game from this franchise that I played, and real talk… I was bored to pieces. Then I was talking to one of my gamer buddies (Tylo) and he was like, “keep going.” So after like maybe a half a year I put it back in, and tried it. Still bored. But this time I kept going and almost an hour in, the Title Screen popped up. I thought I was already playing the game, and it turns out I was just in the intro. I was about to put it down again and decided I would go to at least level ten, then I could tell Tylo I gave it a shot and it just wasn’t for me. Then…

One or two missions after the intro the game introduced a mechanic that literally changed the game for me. Out of 10 stars, the game went from like a 4 to a 13. And to this day I have still never seen another game with this exact mechanic, though there are some that are close, none of them comes near the level of fun and satisfaction. Then as you get deeper into the game it becomes super familiar, which is also nice, becasue all of the Greek mythology I studied in grade school – all of a sudden, I was revisiting it. Of civilizations outside of American, I would say that Ancient Greece was the one we studied most closely and spent the most curriculum on, so for me it was an incredible game. Even if you didn’t study Greek mythology or know anything about Greece this game is still a banger and I highly recommend it.

Grade: A

Back maybe a year ago I used to do a stream two or three times a week on Twitch called ‘Midnight Mass.” In the game #RidersRepublic, they hold an event called a Mass Race every half hour (or I think it’s 20 minutes now) where you have to do sections of cycling, flying, and skiing. Since one always occurs at midnight, I would participate in that one and talk about things happening in the world during the race. This particular Midnight Mass my focus was on Ubisoft and an unsustainable model they just adapted that I think will hurt their business tremendously. It, in fact, has caused me to hesitate buying games from them. The Mass Race is usually about 15 minutes total.