4/29 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village [3DS]
5/1 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]
5/3 - Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon [PC]
5/11 - Metro: Last Light [PC]
6/5 - Prime World: Defenders [PC]
6/16 - The Swapper [PC]
6/28 - State of Decay [X360]
7/1 - The Last of Us [PS3]
7/3 - Tomb Raider [PC]
7/3 - The Walking Dead: 400 Days [PC]
7/13 - Dark [PC]
7/14 - Hotline Miami [PC]
7/18 - Metro: Last Light Faction Pack DLC [PC]
7/28 - Shadowrun Returns [PC]
In hindsight, it seems unthinkable that a universe of Shadowrun's cyberpunk/fantasy stature has gone so unheralded in the world of gaming. Since the 16-bit era, almost two decades have passed without a game properly set in the tabletop RPG's world. Ultimately, the people have spoken, crowd-funding a Kickstarter to the tune of $1.8 million in April of 2012. The demand was there; all that was needed was the game. Fast-forward to July of 2013 and Shadowrun Returns.
This new iteration serves as somewhat of a spiritual successor to 1993s SNES release. Its an isometric RPG heavily dependent on character conversations. Shadowrun Returns even makes several nods to the original title, including variations on the music from the SNES game, and even an appearance from classic games protagonist Jake Armitage as an NPC. Nostalgia is not the only positive factor driving this game, but there are enough misses that it certainly wont please everyone.
I finally sat down over the last few nights and finished playing through Guacamelee. What a great game.
The art style is fantastic and the game is legitimately funny. The platforming was challenging but not unreasonable, and the game was generous with the checkpoints. Even better, falling off a ledge into a pit or a pool of acid didn't require you to jump back to a checkpoint - just back from the ledge you were last on. It took all the frustration out of platforming and kept it fun.
The combat was up to par as well. The rate at which you unlocked new moves was gradual enough to make it easy to work them in to your regular combat routine, but they also came often enough to get you excited when you found one. Some of the combos that would seem ridiculously daunting at first started to come out naturally during the arena battles.
When it was over, I definitely wanted more. And since I got the "sad" ending, I think I'll be continuing to play this for a bit.
The Metro: Last Light Faction Pack DLC is a $5 DLC pack that includes three new single player missions. Not all of them are very good, and none of them feature main protagonist Artyom, but it's still worth it. Here's why:
4/29 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village [3DS]
5/1 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]
5/3 - Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon [PC]
5/11 - Metro: Last Light [PC]
6/5 - Prime World: Defenders [PC]
6/16 - The Swapper [PC]
6/28 - State of Decay [X360]
7/1 - The Last of Us [PS3]
7/3 - Tomb Raider [PC]
7/3 - The Walking Dead: 400 Days [PC]
7/13 - Dark [PC]
7/14 - Hotline Miami [PC]
7/18 - Metro: Last Light Faction Pack DLC [PC]
If you haven't heard, there's DLC for Metro: Last Light that came out recently. For $5, you get three new single player missions. None of them involve the core game's protagonist Artyom, or even forward the story at all. They're one-off situations that each put you in the role of a member of three different factions. There's a shooting gallery-esque Reich mission, a stealth Red mission, and the highlight - a survival-horror scavenging Polis mission.
The Reich mission is very short and rather throwaway. The Red mission is fun but kind of easy and slightly short as well. But the Polis mission is something pretty great. It feels like a minigame in and of itself and will likely keep you busy for several hours. It's got problems of its own but they're overshadowed by the overall experience.
As we speak, my video review for this is rendering, and it goes much more in-depth. I'll post that as soon as it's up.
4/29 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village [3DS]
5/1 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]
5/3 - Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon [PC]
5/11 - Metro: Last Light [PC]
6/5 - Prime World: Defenders [PC]
6/16 - The Swapper [PC]
6/28 - State of Decay [X360]
7/1 - The Last of Us [PS3]
7/3 - Tomb Raider [PC]
7/3 - The Walking Dead: 400 Days [PC]
7/13 - Dark [PC]
This is the first game in years that I can truly say that I hated playing. I advise to avoid it altogether. If you want to know why, here are my thoughts:
7/14 - Hotline Miami [PC]
What an awesome game this was. Very cool artistic style and gritty atmosphere with a killer soundtrack.
It had that Super Meat Boy feel of one-hit-or-dead-but-you-can-retry-instantly-ad-nauseum. And similar to the aforementioned indie, it became incredibly addicting. It could be rather difficult, but each outing into a stage provided just a bit more progress until you pieced together the perfect plan for a brutal murder run.
It's intriguing to (attempt to) follow the unfolding plot, as well. All sorts of crazy imagery is peppered throughout the game and it's a bit of a mind-f***. There are some very interesting and well-thought-out theories that explain the story on the Internet, and reading through them makes the whole thing feel much deeper. I just watched a YouTube with the "password" ending and it seems like there is a strong political parallel to the whole thing.
One of my only complaints is the targeting system. It felt very spotty when quick reflexes were required to get out of a jam - though, usually said jam is due to an error on your part. But the most bothersome part was that the targeting reticule that identified which enemy you were targeting was often hard to see when you were locked on. So when there were multiple enemies involved, it was easy to mistake who you were targeting, and that could quickly lead to failure.
Still, an ultimately minor gripe given the quality of the overall experience. It's cheaply priced and a relatively quick romp. Highly recommended.
After getting through the emotionally exhausting journey that was The Last of Us, I took the opportunity between reviews to finish up a backlogged game in Tomb Raider and also found myself playing The Walking Dead: 400 Days right after it. Thoughts below:
Games I've finished in 2013:
1/15 - ZombiU [Wii U]
2/13 - Omerta: City of Gangsters [PC]
2/29 - Valkyria Chronicles [PS3]
3/19 - Batman: Arkham City [PC]
3/23 - Orcs Must Die! 2 [PC]
3/29 - Mass Effect 3: Citadel DLC [PC]
4/3 - Dead Space 3 [PC]
4/10 - Dead Space 3: Awakening DLC [PC]
4/25 - Surgeon Simulator 2013 [PC]
4/29 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village [3DS]
5/1 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]
5/3 - Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon [PC]
5/11 - Metro: Last Light [PC]
6/5 - Prime World: Defenders [PC]
6/16 - The Swapper [PC]
6/28 - State of Decay [X360]
7/1 - The Last of Us [PS3]
7/3 - Tomb Raider [PC]
Finally got around to finishing the story campaign on this one a couple of days ago. I remember when I started playing that the characters felt well-done. But after playing The Last of Us and coming back to this, well, just about everything character-oriented pales in comparison to that game, so this suffered as a result.
However, after playing The Last of Us and dealing with its nervous, shaky shooting, the shooting in Tomb Raider felt very tight and satisfying. I particularly enjoyed flinging flame-tipped arrows at just about everything.
I feel like there should have been more opportunities to be stealthy, though. For almost the entire second half of the game, there were next to no opportunities to sneak through a section. You would be teased as such, but while planning your route, you realize that there's an enemy staring static straight down the hallway that you must begin at. So you're going to be seen anyway and might as well start shooting.
Ultimately, though, it felt like an open-world Uncharted with slightly lower production values (certainly forgiveable) and better combat. Tomb Raider also takes itself more seriously than Uncharted and comes off a little hokey at times as a result, but it's still a very enjoyable game with much more going for it than against it. I'm looking forward to a sequel.
7/3 - The Walking Dead: 400 Days [PC]
This one blindsided me. It's like "oh hey this is coming out this week," and then "oh hey this is out." So right after I'd finished Tomb Raider, I decided to jump in and play through what I'd expected to be a relatively short run, if 400 Days was consistent with the previous episodes of the game.
And it was. The 2-hour trip felt very much the same as the other episodes, and that's a good thing. Though the big, immediate difference is that instead of putting you in the shoes of a protagonist and setting you loose, you play in the shoes of five different people. It seems to be a great way to establish new characters, because when it's over, you're immediately connected to what each individual has been through. And there are certainly some cringe-worthy decisions made on all fronts.
It's a great setup for what will be Season 2, and I'm very much looking forward to it.
Having finished my play-through of The Last of Us yesterday, it's a game that I feel compelled to discuss. I won't be compiling a Default Prime review of this one as Lucas Stephens has already provided his thoughts on the site. But it's a game that deserves to be talked about, regardless.
As noted above, this will be chock full of spoilers. If you haven't played the game yet, don't read this blog entry.
This time, I want to start at the end. It's worth recording my immediate reaction having finished the game. I was at once relieved, disappointed, bewildered, and curious. I was relieved that the tension was over, disappointed at Joel's decisions, bewildered about why he had done what he did, and curious as to how that would change the hopes of the people.
Above all, I was full of thought. And the only other game in recent history that had me pondering it that closely, well after it was over, was Bioshock Infinite. That is excellent company.
But the more I thought about it, the more that the ending made sense, the more I was glad that Naughty Dog has opted to make Joel decide in the way that he did. To wrap things up in a nice, completed package at the end would have betrayed the world that had been created, the one that I had been experiencing for some 15 hours. To make Joel consider the world over his feelings of devastating loss would have betrayed his meticulously crafted character. Because of these, I would not have wanted the ending in any other way.
And this is all thanks to the incredible job at character-building throughout the game. Ellie comes off very believably as a teenager (as care-free as one could be in this game's world), but becomes increasingly forlorn and downtrodden as she is forced to kill to get by, and faced with what she sees to be as an imminent sacrifice of herself for the greater good.
As for Joel, after the absolute agony that he is put through in the opening sequence, we later find out through conversation that he had spent at least part of those 20 years after the incident as a "bad guy." He keeps referring to having done bad things. When coming upon the Hunters for the first time, he even mentions having been "on both sides."
It's a strange thing to be put into the shoes of someone who seems so morally deficient, but The Last of Us paints a world that is morally deficient. In that contrast, what is a "bad guy" here? All you see here are different groups of people all trying to achieve the same thing in different ways: survival. You could say that one type of person is "better" because perhaps they value human life more. But, by that reasoning, what if those who are "worse" are thriving more easily as a result of their actions? Is their method still inferior?
It's really not. It may seem more extreme, but certainly not inferior. It's a return to tribal living. Aside from the out-of-control infected, all other people that Joel and Ellie come across are simply different tribes with their own systems of survival. And Joel is the glue, as he has found himself - in some way - involved on all sides of the fence (other than the infected, of course, and the cannibals).
Joel is not a good guy. He's a damaged one. He lost his daughter, he lost Tess, and he's experienced other levels of loss that don't necessarily involve death. He's shut off, clearly not willing to discuss any parts of any of it. "Things happen, and you move on."
But as the game progresses, he and Ellie become increasingly attached. He's the father she never had. She's the daughter he'd lost 20 years prior. But Ellie is more comfortable with the fact that her purpose serves a larger good than herself. Joel is not willing to grasp that. He eventually allows himself to open up to Ellie, and that vulnerability makes him absolutely unwilling to go through yet another devastating loss.
There's a review from Philip Kollar on Polygon that riffs a bit on how he has trouble coming to terms with Joel's willingness to commit vast amounts of murder, especially towards the end. I generally enjoy Mr. Kollar's reviews very much, but I find myself at odds with his view on this aspect. And I also find myself a bit surprised at how deeply he let that bit affect the game's score.
I find that The Last of Us did a superb job of showing that Joel is a cold person, but not emotionless. He doesn't want to discuss pain, but if you threaten his cub, he is set loose. The further that the game dives, the more attached he becomes to Ellie, and the more ruthlessly he battles to defend her. And that ultimately brings us to a scene that is becoming famous, where Joel brutally murders a doctor with his own knife when he was about to operate on Ellie. It's the culmination of Joel coming unhinged, blind to everything and everyone other than Ellie as he is desperate to avoid yet another loss, desperate to avoid more decades of suppression and escape.
And finally, the scene with Marlene. This is the one that gets into Joel's head. There's a moment where Marlene says "This is what she would want," referring to the idea that, if asked, Ellie would opt to give herself up to the doctors if it meant the possibility of a cure. And you can clearly see that Joel believes Marlene when she says it, and even considers it for a moment. But then, blind with the fear of loss, he makes his choice, shoots Marlene, and lies to Ellie, telling her that the doctors didn't need her anymore, that there were dozens of immune people and they hadn't helped.
And the whole thing leaves off with Joel swearing to Ellie that he's telling the truth.
That's the moment that set off that array of emotions: relief, disappointment, bewilderment, and curiosity. But after I had filtered through those immediate feelings, it settled in satisfaction. I can now take a step back and feel comfortable that Naughty Dog had carefully crafted these characters, and let them exist consistently and believably in the harsh world that they had built.
Tom McShea's Gamespot review also received a bit of flack for its "harsh" 8.0 score (let's not forget that an 8.0 is a GREAT game, guys). But I find his negative points rather defensible. There are technical issues on hand, specifically with the combat. Enemies don't notice AI partners in any way, and it breaks immersion. Ellie can be chatting away at a time when even creeping quickly would cause too much sound, but it doesn't alert the clickers. She can be standing right in front of a roaming hunter and he won't notice her.
Of course, if those moments did alert the enemies at those times, this game would be a lot less fun to play. So it's a trade-off of immersion for fun factor at times. In my opinion, it's a worthwhile trade-off, but I can see the complaint.
Again, I'm not formally reviewing the game, but as I gather my thoughts on it, I'm confident that I would have scored this game quite high, at least as high as any game I've played yet this year. Yes, there are AI quirks, but as I noted, I feel that the trade-off is worthwhile. I find that this game was crafted around creating a world, telling a story, and building characters, and that it pulled all three of those aspects off immaculately.
More than any other time so far this year, I found myself very reluctant to turn the game off after a long play session. Once I'd started, I had to see Joel and Ellie through to the end. It stuck with me while playing and it's sticking with me well after. In the end, I don't feel that any of the negative technical issues in the game actually adversely affected my experience. There are those who understandably (and again, defensibly) disagree with me, but in my book, The Last of Us is a masterpiece that eclipses all of the already outstanding work that Naughty Dog has put forth until now. I can't wait to see what they do next.
I've made these posts a staple of my gaming blogs since 2010. They've become really fun to look back on year after year, so it feels natural to bring to GB as well. As I finish games, I just list the date on which I finished them, and I usually provide some quick thoughts on the experience with the latest addition. If a full review was recorded, I include that instead. So without further ado, the inaugural Finished Games Post in the GB blog:
Games I've finished in 2013:
1/15 - ZombiU [Wii U]
2/13 - Omerta: City of Gangsters [PC]
2/29 - Valkyria Chronicles [PS3]
3/19 - Batman: Arkham City [PC]
3/23 - Orcs Must Die! 2 [PC]
3/29 - Mass Effect 3: Citadel DLC [PC]
4/3 - Dead Space 3 [PC]
4/10 - Dead Space 3: Awakening DLC [PC]
4/25 - Surgeon Simulator 2013 [PC]
4/29 - Professor Layton and the Curious Village [3DS]
5/1 - Theatrhythm Final Fantasy [3DS]
5/3 - Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon [PC]
5/11 - Metro: Last Light [PC]
6/5 - Prime World: Defenders [PC]
Side note: This blog feels so much less archaic than the Gamespot one. I like it.
For years, I've kept my blog at Gamespot. But I'm thinking of either using this one in tandem, or switching entirely. I really enjoy this website.
So I may as well make my first entry an introduction to all zero of you who will know that this entry exists! It's a way to get past blank page syndrome.
SO, I'm Matt Buckley. My first gaming memories are of the Atari 2600 and BASIC games on my mom's work computer. I've got love for all consoles, though my most nostalgic gaming memories are a combination of SNES titles and 90's shareware PC gaming. Today, I do my absolute best to play all platforms to stay abreast of all current gaming trends, but I do the majority of my leisurely gaming on PC.
Aside from gaming, I'm a Crossfitter (Crossfit Apex represent!) and a big fan of hockey and MMA. I've also been a musician for my entire life, and I was a music composition major at Duquesne University. I have a band called Drop Anchor that I still play with from time to time.
That's me in a nutshell. Here's to actually using this blog!
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