Well here’s a parade of winners for you. Our first attempt at the Open Beta Tester event, leading to one of Grindstone’s most despised games, followed by an absolutely atrocious cash-in title followed by a butchered yet worshipped otaku paradise. Everything is wonderful.

Episode 63: ArcheAge
Oh god. What was this thing even trying to do?!
I will say this over an over again for those accusing me of having some sort of weird bias… I wanted to like this game. I chose it for Open Beta Tester Event because I wanted to like it. I chose it for the event because I thought it would be a great game for all of us to get into. A easily followed quest path, or the option to play sandbox style. I was hoping it would be Grindstone’s new Wushu. We designed our fucking guild logo for the explicit purpose of using in this game… and we all hated every second of playing ArcheAge.
It wasn’t so much what ArcheAge was, it’s the fact it did a piss poor job of being that.
“It’s a sandbox!” detractors say. No, you still need to play through a very boring and linear questline filled with boring task after boring task to the fairly deep level of 30, for the express permission to start playing like a sandbox. That is, if you’re willing to invest the cash or absurdly grindy amount of time and effort to accrue the “labor points” to build even the most basic parts needed to do anything fun and freely.
“It’s open PvP!” they’d exclaim. Save that this allowed both faction members and non-faction members to attack you making you safe from no one, not really penalizing PK players beyond some player-chosen “slap-on-the-wrist” sentences that rarely lasted longer than a bathroom break.
“The class system lets you be anything!” they’d retort. Well, unless you wanted to be an “assassin” which turns you into a healer for some reason. Or of course, you wanted to be effective in any form of combat as most class combinations were completely worthless and didn’t properly synergize with each other.
The combat was lazy and unimaginative as the questing. The community was god awfully terrible, and the game failed at every single thing it was trying to be. To hell with this game.
And to the one guy who said “I gave better information” in my Sidequest because I had high hopes for the game at the time and didn’t talk about all the negatives because I hadn’t encountered them yet: “Go fuck yourself, fanturd.”
Recommended?: Fuck NO.

Episode 64: F.E.A.R. Online
This shit right here? This is why I don’t like doing polls.
I can’t really blame the voters here. They probably thought what most of us thought. “Hey, Psionic powers in a horror focused F.E.A.R. based online game?! Sign me up!” What we got was fuckin’ Call of Duty: Boo edition. (“Call of Duty: Ghosts But For Real This Time”?) Horror isn’t a succession of jumpscares, regardless of what Five Night at Freddy’s wants you to believe. But this game couldn’t even keep its tone straight. The announcer sounded like he was stolen from Crazy Taxi. The guitar riffs were hilariously out of place. The animation was so broken and jerky that it took any sense of dread out of the supposedly “fear-focused” online modes. Nothing worked. The god damned “Koi Pond of Invincibility”!
F.E.A.R. Online is dead now. Unsurprisingly and deservedly.
(Fun Fact: Angry Joe used snippets of this video in his list of “Worst Games of 2014”, gaining me the largest subscriber boost on Youtube, that was already going along respectfully.)
Recommended?: NO. God no. Not like you have a choice anymore, though.

Episode 65: S4 League
What the hell happened here? This game was suggested and beloved by Raid Leader Patron/Grindstone member “Nebibl”, and even MegaGWolf a huge fan of the game years ago. Both of them felt the hackers were a bit out of control and felt the game was wounded for it, but still a lot of fun.
I did not agree.
Granted, I did not play this game when it was so praised by people I know, but what I was playing was nothing special. Broken UI. Clunky graphics. (And to the pedantic defenders, I know the difference between aesthetic choice and graphic quality. And the graphics quality still sucked for the aesthetic they were going for.) The gameplay felt slow and muddy. Shooting felt weak, unimpactful and unsatisfying. Several of the modes were unimaginative and broken. Nothing about it was fun.
How about that ridiculously Korenglish true title to the game, “Stylish eSper Shooting Sports?” I’ve never wanted to punch a title so hard since “The Exiled Realm of Arborea”
Whatever former glory this once had isn’t there anymore. Only the truly fanatical seem to think otherwise.
S4 League does for shooters what Drift City does for racing games.
Recommended?: NO.