GTAV Heists - Review - A Little too Late?

I'll be uploading some videos soon!

Its been over a year since the release of the biggest game in recent history. With promises of online heists, many of its devoted fan base waited through the delays and poor community feedback. Finally, it arrived. Yet, was it worth it?

As it stands, I've only had time to play the first two heists, Fleeca Bank and The Prison Job.

As soon as I got into a lobby I received the call from Lester. After a little back and forth, I was finally able to participate in the first job. In the same format as the single player campaign, the job is dividing into sections and makes you clear off the entire checklist before doing said job. Each time you have to go through a process of hosting a lobby and inviting people into the game, this is where I experienced many a problem. First of all, you have the rabble of GTA who will not wait for people to join the lobby, secondly you have the extreme pressure on the servers causing certain functions to dissipate and finally close the lobby. As a format, the process of joining is not easy. Its in fact a nuisance. In the second job when one person joined, it would kick another member out meaning you'd have a conga line of players incoming and out going because they were clashing.

Gameplay wise, it's no difference to the game. AI's are just as dull and fairly easy to whittle through, unless you pull the short straw and get stuck with a dullard (this is often). Restarts are punished and the overall outcome is far less which has a sense of reality which is also effected by the quality of vehicles you bring to them. For a host, you drop a lump sum of money up front. The Prison Job is the first mission that you have to do this for. For a whopping 40k you can go ahead and start robbing people. Considering the payout from the last mission was significant, espicially as the host, you can finally earn a decent amount of money without spending hours grinding 'Rooftop Rumble' and races. Now you can just grind heists!

Its a great change to the economy of GTA and nice to have something that actively rewards you rather than being pressured into buying virtual currency. Fortunately, I'm skint and have plenty of time on my hands to grind away but this really makes it easy for any player to enjoy the game again, Unless you're a PC fan... Perhaps in a few months we'll hear about a new GTA coming out next year as they may have finally milked the GTAV cow dry.

Top 5 Games of the Year - 2013

Looking back over the year of games, I have noticed that very little actually caught my attention. Apart from the generic continuation of the basic and repetitive instalments of CoD and Battlefield, that leave little to be desired apart from a new 6 hour campaign and new maps for the online play. I would have written have like to have done an unboxing video on the youtube channel (Black Ribbon Gaming Youtube Channel) of the new generation of consoles but seeing that I could just about afford the Xbox One and only just received it, I felt it a little pointless to do one so late on. I would also like to stress that I only have an Xbox 360. PS3 games, unfortunately, cannot make it into my top games as of yet.

In no particular order:

1 - The Walking Dead - Telltale Series.
Yes I know that it came out last year but the full hard copy came out earlier this year with every episode and also the 400 Days dropped too. Plus the new one comes out in a few days and I'm wetting myself with excitement. Possibly one of the most innovative games in many, many years.
A cinematic story that forces you to make moral decisions that affect you later on (Don't worry, forums and Wikia will help you to get the perfect ending that will help you in the next series!). With a creative art style and brilliant script writing, this game will stand as one of the best for many years too come. The Walking Dead - Review

2 - Bioshock Infinite
Originally destined for release in 2012, Bioshock was pushed back into the earlier part of this year. Saddened by the wait, hopes were high for an even stronger game. In true fashion, it was out of this world. A change in scenery was worrying to think about but the overall outcome gave you a new story that can go so many different ways. Take the DLC for example. You get to return to Rapture and it's just awesome to see the world again but with people actually living there, not some crack heads and adorable Big Daddies... A tense and exciting game. Ken Levine has done it again and should just be aloud creative freedom to do what he pleases! Bioshock Infinite - Review

3 - Tomb Raider
An unexpected favourite of mine. Earlier this year, Josh wrote a review praising it for being amazing. I held back for a while. I didn't want to spend too much money on something that I may not enjoy. Eventually I caved in and bought the special edition box set version with some really cool additions in it for only £20. Bargain! I kid you not, the game was awesome. A mix of fantasy carved into a survival story doesn't always work but Square Enix knocked it out of the park. A vast landscape with lots of free-reign to do as you please but enough guidance to keep you on track without being too intrusive. Combat is simple and realistic and the visuals are astonishing. Nothing short of incredible and too think they have just released a special edition with upped graphics for the next gen consoles. Square Enix have a prize winner by keeping their trademark cinematic footage but moved away from sponging from the Final Fantasy series. Tomb Raider - Review

4 - Assassins Creed 4 - Black Flag
Yeah. Do I really need to explain this? Pirates, Assassins, Sailing, killing shit and all that fun stuff that we've come to expect from the AC franchise. I'd have to question you if you did not enjoy this. The story is far superior to AC3, the visuals are fantastic, sailing is no longer a gimmick and you're a motherfucking pirate assassin! The game drops the mini games and really focuses on experiencing the incredibly vast world. It's sandbox but MASSIVE. A very similar combat system with little change makes it easy to jump back in and frolic around the deck of your ship, pestering the local wildlife or stabbing anything in a red coat... Assassins Creed 4 - Review

5 - Grand Theft Auto 5 (Not the multiplayer)
One of histories most successful games, this list simply could not ignore it. Seeing that GTA4 bored me, I wasn't expecting to have so much fun. Yeah, it lacks top of the range visuals and is extremely glitchy but the huge story and the mad antics are entertaining. It's a game you can pick up and enjoy without having the use your head. However, I don't enjoy the multiplayer much. It's a cluster of people paranoid that they're going to get wiped and will shoot without a thought. Simple, crazy and unruly.  Great with a few friends, some beer and some terrible food.

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My Youtube launch! - Starting with Grand Theft Auto 5!

Hey guys and girls. Recently I've been working on a youtube channel and If you follow the link below, you will notice I have a few videos up from my testing phases. Starting with GTA5, I should be getting every story mission up onto Youtube with no commentary!

Two reasons for that:
1) I don't interupt the story.
2) I hate the sound of my voice and have no idea what I'm doing.

Here is the link to the channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/BlackRibbonGaming

Here's my first video - Hope you enjoy!

NEW Grand Theft Auto 5 Trailer

In the last few hours the new Grand Theft Auto trailer was dropped. The long awaited return of the GTA universe has been an extensive one for many fans. Personally, I didn't even finish GTA4 as it bored me a little, but since Rockstar released Red Dead Redemption which is one of my favourite games. A compelling story and a creative style will be mimicked into this episode of GTA and will bring the game to a whole new level. Released on September 17th, I shall be getting it and will be hitting it hard for a few days. I'm going to leave a question to you guys, Are you guys looking forward to this and would you like gameplay videos?

ENJOY!