METAL GEAR SOLID 2

Metal Gear Solid 2 came out in Europe a few months after it did elsewhere, but players got a pretty sweet reward for their patience in the form of European Extreme difficulty. Even harder than regular Extreme, European Extreme gave players zero rations throughout the games, buffed up enemies so they could essentially deliver one hit kills (especially the bosses), and made it so that if you ever broke stealth and alerted an enemy, it was game over for you.

]]> https://gamingbolt.com/15-games-that-had-an-unlockable-harder-difficulty-only-to-drive-you-crazy/feed 0 415923 https://gamingbolt.com/best-linear-single-player-games-you-need-to-play-part-1 https://gamingbolt.com/best-linear-single-player-games-you-need-to-play-part-1#respond Mon, 06 May 2019 11:30:30 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=396695 The industry’s landscape has changed beyond recognition these past few years, as online gaming has exploded in popularity. Experiences focused on multiplayer offerings or being live service titles have become very common, and even those that are single player games often end up going for the open world approach in order to maximize player engagement. Linear, focused single player games, then, are a lot less common than they once used to be.

But though they’re no longer the dominant style of games, that doesn’t mean they’ve gone completely extinct. In the past few years, there have been quite a few excellent linear single player titles, and in this feature, we’ll be taking a look at the best of the best.

Do note that this list is in completely random order. You’ll also notice that some of the games in this feature have multiplayer components, but the purposes of this list, it goes without saying that we’ll only be considering their single player campaigns.

With all that out of the way, let’s begin.

UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Uncharted 2 one of the most influential games to have been released over the last ten years. Though Uncharted 1 was a great game in its own right, with Among Thieves, Naughty Dog perfected the art of interactive storytelling and bombastic Hollywood-esque action. Uncharted 2 was a watershed moment for this industry, and the mark it made on video games is clear to see to this day, and will be for a long time to come.

What with all of the drama that goes into this encounter, you have to expect some sort of comparable level of difficulty, right? Perhaps a test of all acquired skills or abilities, battles against learned patterns from foes of the past, or at least some sort of test of fortitude that matches the gravity of final boss battle. Not always the case, as we shall see in some examples of disappointingly easy final bosses in amazing video games.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

Dark Beast Ganon – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Not only is Breath of the Wild one of the most popular Switch titles, and one of the most widely loved Zelda titles amongst fans, its consensus amongst the gaming public at large is overwhelmingly positive. Which makes the fight against Dark Beast Ganon so unfortunate, for a game that was so awesomely different from previous Zelda games, increasing the sense of scale in adventuring in a way that wasn’t really anticipated. There’s no protracted struggle here – it’s Link, his horse, and the Bow of Light (courtesy of Zelda) against Ganon that is significantly monstrous in form and scale, and with an appreciation for the color pink. Your goal is to ride around to the left and right sides of Dark Beast Ganon, at which point golden Triforce glyphs will appear; these are his weak points. Aim your arrows at the center of those glyphs to damage him. There will be three on either side, and one underneath him. The final hit against Dark Beast Ganon will be a shot to an eye that appears atop his head once he has been incapacitated by the other attacks.

Bethesda has a lot of huge games in the works, so it would be natural to wonder whether we’ll be seeing more from franchises like Wolfenstein and Dishonored. While Wolfenstein seems to be taking a break from its numbered entries with the upcoming Youngblood, the Dishonored franchise reportedly seems to be “resting”. Speaking to Metro, Bethesda’s vice president of PR and marketing Pete Hines discussed the possibilities regarding the futures for these series.

Regarding the next major instalment in the Wolfenstein series, Pete Hines stated this is a game that they are definitely making. He said, “Yeah, sure. Absolutely we’re making a Wolfenstein III. They said on stage that they’re taking a break from the larger story to do this thing. But we all have to see how that ends.”

The interviewer also inquired about the Dishonored series and how it is said to be “resting.” However, Hines is of the perspective that the developers just want to work on different projects, so it certainly is a possibility that we’ll be seeing more of this series in the future. Hines stated, “Ah, I wouldn’t read too much into that. Look, Arkane has two studios, they’re working on a number of things. That’s no different than Todd Howard saying, ‘I’m gonna make a Fallout game and then I’m gonna make Starfield before I go back to TES6’. He didn’t say I’m never making another… there’s like, ‘We have an idea for another thing here, we have an idea for another there’.”

All in all, it’s still pretty great news for fans of the franchises to learn that they aren’t completely dead. The less-than-stellar commercial performances of both Wolfenstein 2 and Dishonored 2 may have cast doubts over futures of both properties, Dishonored more so than Wolfenstein, since the latter is at least still getting a new game next year. It’s great to know that that doesn’t seem to be the case. Hopefully, we’ll get to learn more about this soon enough.

Looks like Bethesda’s ship is springing a whole lot of leaks as we approach E3, and their press conference scheduled for Sunday evening. Hot on the heels of the leak earlier today regarding the long speculated upon The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim remaster, it sounds like a few more games that the company plans on showing at their keynote have leaked- and they’re going to make some fans of Bethesda’s 2014 lineup very happy.

For starters, it sounds like a Wolfenstein 2, which is going to be a sequel to the 2014 reboot of the franchise Wolfenstein: The New Order, is going to be at the show. The game was already leaked by a member of the voice cast who accidentally revealed they were working on the game a few months ago.

Also there will be, apparently, a sequel to Shinji Mikami’s The Evil Within. Eurogamer haven’t been able to provide solid reasoning or rumors for this one in their rumors round up for Bethesda’s E3 show, but they do say they expect it to be unveiled regardless, so it is possible they know something we don’t, and that we should expect the game there.

If true, then between these games, the Skyrim remaster, PREY 2, and Dishonored 2, it sounds like Bethesda are gonna have a killer E3. Again.

It seems Wolfenstein 2, a true sequel to The New Order, will be releasing by 2017.

Polish actress Alicja Bachleda-Curus, who voiced Anya in the game, recently gave an interview with TVN (courtesy of GamePressure) and revealed that she was doing voice work for the sequel to a video game she was originally in. Given that Wolfenstein: The New Order is the only game she’s done work for, you can draw your own conclusions.

Of course, Bachleda-Curus also mentioned that she played earlier versions of the game and loved being able to shoot Hitler. It seems that development on Wolfenstein 2 or Wolfenstein: The New Order 2 will take “roughly two years” and that the work was being done in the United States.

Considering how well received The New Order and its expansion The Old Blood were received, it shouldn’t be surprising that Bethesda has a true sequel in the works. Are you looking forward to it? Let us know in the comments.

(Thanks, NeoGAF)