Catch 22 Series Review

[Martta Borromeo]

Its the reason I save them for last every time I eat a strawberry shortcake. So when I found myself faced with three story-based adventure games to review, I opted to do "Tales From the Borderlands Episode 3: Catch A Ride" last, even though it was released first.

The good news is that Catch A Ride continues to deliver the chuckles. The writing on this series so far has been like golden nuggets of funny, thanks to a generous amount of snark, slapstick, implausible scenarios and the classic schtick of having a funny person playing off a straight person. It's like a treatise on comedic timing in video game form.

The addition of vault hunter Athena further improves the already excellent rapport between cast members. While all the other characters can pull double duty as both straight foil and funny comedian, Athena is the ultimate example of a super serious foil, leading to some funny moments of her own. Her serious yet unintentionally hilarious reaction to Fiona's wish that sister Sasha witness her cool takedown of a foe, for example, was a much welcome hit to the funny bone at a time when I was still reeling from the endings of Nest of Vipers and The Dark Room. Not that Catch A Ride is all about laughs. The game also has its share of touching moments, whether it be certain interactions between cast members that I shall not spoil or the increasingly self aware Loader Bot's poignant questions. The ending is yet another cliffhanger as well that leaves players wondering what's in store for Episode 4.

My game also crashed near the end of Chapter 3 and caused Fiona to freeze and unable to move. This required me to go back to the title screen and start the third chapter again, which was frustrating. There were some graphical consistencies as well like a cutscene where Vaughn was tied up to Loader Bot one moment, then not tied up seconds later then tied up again right after.

Overall, though, Tales of the Borderlands remains a fun and an enjoyable romp. I also like how choices made in earlier games seem to have more consequence than the choices I made in Game of Thrones. If you're looking for a story-driven adventure that features a ton of laughs while still serving up some thoughtful moments, Episode 3 is one ride you'll want to catch.

I continue to be surprised by how prolific the fishing game genre is. Just when I think that there couldn't possibly be a reason for a developer to make yet another fishing adventure, three more pop up to prove me wrong. There appears to be a very particular audience that's totally into digital angling. So it makes sense for the folks over at the Discovery Channel to attempt to tap into this specialized market by creating a game based around one of their more popular reality programs: Deadliest Catch.

It does offer something new as out of the previous fishingtitles I've played; none have had me pursue crabs out on dangerous open water. It also gives viewers the chance to be the captain of their own crab-fishing vessel like the characters on the hit series. Unfortunately, fans of the show may be disappointed, as while Deadliest Catch: The Game does a good job of meticulously detailing the day-to-day operations of owning your own ship, it offers nowhere near the same level of sea-faring excitement.

If you're unfamiliar with Deadliest Catch, it's a show about crab-fishermen who sail the Bering Sea in search of delicious crustaceans to scoop up for profit. A typical episode consists of a lot of rain, snow, massive waves, people yelling at each other, and huge moments that happen conveniently right before a commercial break. It's precisely what you would expect out of a reality show on the Discovery Channel. It even has Dirty Jobs host Mike Rowe doing the narration. I'm surprised one of the Mythbusters hasn't showed up to blow up a crab or something.

Deadliest Catch: The Game gives wannabe fishermen and fisherwomen a chance to run their own boat, and it does so in painstaking detail. You need to purchase supplies needed to catch crabs, refuel your boat, hire crewmen, and then there's the complex process of actually fishing for crabs. That requires loading a crab pot - which is essentially a large jail cell for crabs - with bait and a buoy, then chucking it into the water, waiting for several in-game hours, and then unloading the haul. The player then needs to sort and closely inspect the crabs by size and gender as selling female crabs levies captains with a hefty fine. So that means you spend an unbelievable amount of time staring at the undercarriages of crabs. After you're done all that, you sell your catch to a processing plant, purchase upgrades and more items, and then do the whole thing all over again.

As an educational tool, Deadliest Catch: The Game may hold a bit of value. I have almost no experience with the TV Show, so I had little to no idea how much work was put into catching these crusty critters. It seems like an expensive, difficult, incredibly cold, and physically demanding job that I sure as hell wouldn't want to do. The fact that these fishermen put their lives on the line just to gather seafood for the various buffets at casinos and cruise ships around the world is both commendable and insane.

Aside from possible education purposes, the other great use of this game is as a way to persuade someone you know away from pursuing the life of a crab-fisherman as a career path. Because this game is boring as sin. Just about every aspect of Deadliest Catch: The Game is slow, dull, and surprisingly complicated.

Throwing out the crab pot requires a checklist of different steps that need to be completed in order. The boat you take control of has several buttons, levers, compartments, and resources to utilize and keep track of. Forgetting even one of these steps can lead to you losing items or an entire pot of crabs due to one little mistake. The big problem is that the whole process is so tedious that it's pretty easy to lose interest in what you're doing, as it becomes harder and harder to care. Having to grind bait blocks or grab crabs and flip them around to see what kind of junk they have doesn't make for compelling gameplay. This game is almost too faithful to the show in its simulation of crab-fishing. While that may be nice for crab-fishing aficionados, anyone looking for fun will be sorely disappointed.

It doesn't help that the game isn't too exciting from an audiovisual perspective. The simplistic graphics look like they were made with the original Source engine and may have looked incredible in 2005, but look pretty shabby by today's standards. There's barely any music while you're playing, which means you'll spend the majority of your time staring at water and crab crotches with only the droning of your ship's engine to keep you company. There are some decent weather effects as the conditions change from snow to fog to a torrential downpour which does add a certain level of atmosphere, but that's about the most interesting part of Deadliest Catch's visuals.

Crabs aren't the only thing you'll catch in Deadliest Catch: The Game, as there's plenty of bugs for the player to reel in. There were multiple instances of the game crashing or freezing up, as well as some other weird graphical glitches. At one point, the crabs in one of my totes were clipping through the container and could be seen from any section of the boat. It was as if their textures had somehow overpowered every other part of the game. Either that, or these were magical x-ray crabs that should have netted me a fortune. A boring game is one thing, but a boring game that's this buggy after being in Early Access for so long shows just how little effort was put into his cash grab of a crab project.

I'm not sure what the appeal of Deadliest Catch: The Game is supposed to be. There just doesn't seem to be much of a point to anything you do. At least the TV show offers up some drama and excitement by depicting the plight of these fishermen as they fight each other over the right to keep Red Lobster stocked with endless buckets of crab legs. This game just features you as a faceless avatar doing menial tasks without any story or even a dramatic voiceover about your struggles. There's no stakes or tension, just a giant pile of crabs.

If you really love Deadliest Catch or you have a bizarre fascination with crab-fishing then maybe you'll like what this title has to offer. For all other sane video game enthusiasts, it's probably best to leave Deadliest Catch: The Game scuttling down in the muck where it belongs.

For as long as I can remember as part of the bookish community, I have heard about Alyssa Cole, her impeccable writing and to-die-for love interests, especially in her Reluctant Royals series. After reading How to Catch a Queen, I definitely see what all the hype is about!

With headstrong characters and a new twist on the uneasy lies the head that wears a crown narrative, How to Catch a Queen explores what makes a relationship work and captures the politics of growing into your own all the while with a lovely slow-burn romance as a cherry on top.

By day, they lead separate lives. By night, she wears the crown, and he bows to her demands in matters of politics and passion. When turmoil erupts in their kingdom and their marriage, Shanti goes on the run, and Sanyu must learn whether he has what it takes both to lead his people and to catch his queen.

Shortly after the TV industry saw Mad Men explode as a ratings titan, Hollywood went in a predictable direction and pumped out a bunch of series set in the '60s. TV junkies know how that turned out, as shows like The Playboy Club, Pan Am, and Swingtown sputtered out of the gate with ratings as bad as their reviews.

So far, the modern media world's most dramatic takes on wild tech-sector stories have been relegated to biopics about the likes of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. And even when it's included, technology isn't necessarily the true backbone of comedy series like Big Bang Theory and Silicon Valley, which often use geeky references as window dressing for otherwise simple gags.

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